November 4th, 2012
NewsRescue- The Northern Nigeria Youth Committee for Enlightenment (NNYCE) group has pointed accusing fingers at the Minister of Power and all other superior officers in the ministry for not intervening in good time towards resolving the seeming feud in Sokoto state between Governor Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko of Sokoto state and the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) over alleged flogging of PHCN staff allegedly by the governor and his agents.
Related: OsunDefender- Blackout in Sokoto as Wamakko Feuds with PHCN
NNYCE insisted that it would not fold its arms and watch some aggrieved officers in PHCH holding the entire good people of Sokoto to ransom because of a personal and a selfish motive.
The Northern Nigeria Youth Committee for Enlightenment said it had to rise in defence of the people of Sokoto state because unless the PHCN softened its stand, innocent citizens of the state would be affected in the long run.
The group, after its emergency meeting in Kaduna weekend, said in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Comrade Abdullahi Ladan and Hon. Aminu A.G.Sokoto respectively, that it was wrong for the PHCN to take such a sudden and harsh decision of subjecting the entire people of Sokoto state to en electric blackout simply because of a misunderstanding that was brewing between the organization and the state government.
According to the group, information made available to them alleged that the PHCN officers in question were not unknown to Governor Wammako as overtime, they were said to have raked millions from the state government with the assurance that adequate electric supply would be readily available to towns and villages in the state.
However, that was not done, throwing the entire populace into be wilderness and confusion as many of them started accusing the state government of not doing much to provide electricity in spite of the huge amount of money allocated to that sector.
The statement read:”The plan of PHCN Union as directed by the zonal headquarters for a blackout of the entire state is a declaration of insecurity, chaos, intimidation, harassment ,embarrassment, tribal and religious undertone by the union so as to cause the breakdown of ,law and order in many parts of Northern states.”
“With deep sense of patriotism, we plead with the security agencies, the SSS, Police, Military, Civil Defense, traditional and religious leaders and all stakeholders, to intervene so as to avert the looming danger that might arose due to the insistence of the PHCN workers to embark on the strike action.”
Sokoto, according to the group, was the seat of the Caliphate with a predominant Muslim population that prays severally and due to the threat issued by the aggrieved PHCH workers, Imams and other religious leaders across the state were now apprehensive because such a blackout would not only affect places of worship but alter the mode of communication in mosques which makes it easier for worshippers from far and near to be part of the daily congregational prayers.
Now that the Jonathan-led Federal Government was doing its best to restore peace and orderliness in all parts of Nigeria, the threat by PHCN workers in their Kaduna zonal office had the tendency of affecting the peace move and draw the hands of the clock backward, they said.
