The Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) staff have partially withdrawn their services from all five operational areas effective Wednesday, February 8.
All field services have been suspended except for emergency and power vending situations.
The emergency cases include broken conductors, broken poles, transformers on fire, pole burning etc.
According to the Chairman of the Senior Staff Association of the NEDCo branch, William Kwame Asare, this is a result of the Board of Directors failure to remove the Managing Director (MD) Osmani Aludiba Ayuba.
The group had given the MD on or before Monday, January 31, 2023, to “voluntarily resign or be removed from office by the NEDCo Board of Directors.”
They also announced a series of actions to drive home their demand for his removal.
In a petition to the Board, the staff said despite being appointed as Managing Director to help turn around the finances of NEDCo, after three and a half years in office, Mr Ayuba “has failed to help turn around the finances of NEDCo” and hence can no longer continue to hold that office.
Among other things, they cited “worse financial performance of NEDCo, lack of a clear strategy for the company, exorbitant sole source procurement of point-of-sale devices and worsening distribution losses”.
The group, therefore, noted that the deadline given to the MD to resign had elapsed, yet their demands had not been met.
As the first step to drive home their demand, the staff hoisted red banners in all operational areas of NEDCo, including the service centres, on February 01, 2023.
Meanwhile, Mr Kwame Asare said they would not relent on the partial withdrawal of services until the MD is removed.