Nigeria: Electricity Workers Suspend Strike Amid Blackout

(file photo).

The union says power will be restored immediately.

The National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) has suspended its nationwide strike for two weeks.

The secretary-general of the union, Joe Ajaero, said this Wednesday evening after a meeting with the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige.

He said the government has promised to resolve the issues raised by the union within two weeks. He said if their demands are not met, the strike will resume.

A committee headed by the Minister of State for Power, Jeddy Agba, has been set up to reconcile the issues raised by the union.

The parties agreed to form a bipartite committee to look into the complaints of the electricity workers and report back in two weeks, Mr Ajaero said.

Mr Ajaero said power would be restored across the nation.

The union's strike on Wednesday left cities and towns across Nigeria in darkness after workers shut down power stations. The workers are complaining about welfare issues.

Hours after the meeting where an agreement to suspend the strike was taken, the outage continued in parts of Abuja.

Nigeria has struggled with poor electricity for decades. The government said on Wednesday it could not raise power generation to 5,000 megawatts as it promised in July as a result of gas supply problems.

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