Minister meets new TCN mgt amidst workers’ protest

The Minister of Power, Engineer Sale Mamman has met with the new management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) on Wednesday, charging them on accelerated services.

Mamman who disclosed this on his Twitter handle, said he met with the team led by the Acting Managing Director, Engr. Sule Ahmed Abdulaziz shortly after the virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which President Muhammadu Buhari presided over.

“I have charged them with ensuring all substation and transmission projects are completed within the shortest possible time,” Mamman told the team.

Engr. Abdulaziz had led his management team to the minister’s office at the Power House, same building housing TCN headquarters, where the minister assured them of the ministry’s cooperation.

Meanwhile the in-house unions of TCN had on Wednesday morning began a protest over the sack of Mr Usman Gur Mohammed as the Managing Director.

Daily Trust observed that members of the unions comprising the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) and the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) were outside the Power House building housing TCN headquarters and the Federal Ministry of Power, chanting protest songs.

Mamman had announced the removal of Mohammed on Tuesday and replacing him with Engr. Abdulaziz as the acting head of TCN.

Mohammed in a response had said he had always expected a sack. “Like I always say; in a society like ours, anyone who work the way I did should expect sack every day. So I have been expecting this since the day I assumed duty in February 2017. No surprises in what happened to me yesterday.

“The irony is while I was requested to assist in solving TCN lingering issues through a dignified engagement between Nigeria and AfDB in which it took me 6 months after PMB approval to take the assignment and I did best; I was sacked through press release without even a courtesy of informing me before it was announced,” Mohammed noted.