Ondo State Electricity Board (OSEB) Staff Union yesterday dissociated itself from the alleged sponsored protest by members of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), against developments at the board.
TUC on Tuesday protested reforms at the board during the May Day rally.
Union Chairman Abidakun Emmanuel in a statement decried the actions of TUC’s leadership, saying it was ignorant of the situation at OSEB.
He said: “We, OSEB union members, were embarrassed by the misrepresentation of events at OSEB and disappointed because TUC never deemed it fit to contact us at OSEB before intruding in matters they know nothing about.”
Dismissing the alleged sponsored protest, Abidakun said the extant law of OSEB empowers the governor to determine who is to work at the board or not.
The statement reads: “We support reforms at OSEB and assert that by virtue of the extant OSEB law, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has the power to deploy or redeploy workers to and from OSEB as he pleases, for improved efficiency.
“To put the records straight, we are the union that represents the interest and welfare of OSEB workers. We hereby reaffirm our support for the action of the governor and that of his Special Adviser on Public Utilities, Tunji Light Ariyomo.”
The union said: “In the past two weeks that Mr. Governor has appointed a new acting general manager at OSEB, even the blind can attest to the quality of performance by our workers.
“Epileptic power supply at the Government House has stopped. The competence of our workers is no longer in doubt.”
The union advised the people to disregard TUC’s protest, saying its position runs contrary to theirs.
“We dissociate ourselves from the ‘sponsored’ protests.”