The Yola Electricity Distribution Company has described the picketing of its facilities by the National Union of Electricity Employees and Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies as a campaign of calumny and an act of economic sabotage to the company and the people of Adamawa, Borno, Taraba and Yobe States.

The firm’s Head of Corporate Communications, Olugbenga Adebola, in a statement on Monday, said YEDP remained committed to using the resources it could generate to serve the interests of the people of Adamawa, Borno, Taraba and Yobe States who benefit from its services.

The statement said the issues at stake were being deliberately misconstrued by the labour unions, emphasising that it was open to further engagements with them.
He said there was nothing clandestine about the ownership of the Yola Disco as claimed by the labour unions, saying Quest Nigeria Limited, owners of the Disco bought the company in a transparent process supervised by the Bureau of Public Enterprises. “Before that, the previous owners had declared a force majeur and handed over to the government. The government kept running it until they advertised and Quest won the bid.

“We came in and met an organisation that needed to be repositioned in order to stabilise the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry as it had huge losses, mismatch in job alignment and an ageing workforce that requires right-sizing and realignment,” the statement read.