The grid shutdown occurred at about 2:19 a.m. on June 3, 2024. The NLC and TUC commenced a nationwide industrial action on Monday to protest the Federal Government’s proposal for a N60,000 minimum wage.
The NLC and TUC had proposed N615,500 as the minimum wage that the federal government should pay Nigerian workers, citing the high cost of living.
In a statement titled, “Grid shutdown: Union Deliberately Shuts Down the National Grid,” TCN spokesperson Ndidi Mbah issued a statement stating that the action was deliberately carried out by the workers.
The statement read:
“The Transmission Company of Nigeria hereby informs the general public that the labour union has shut down the national grid, resulting in a blackout nationwide. The national grid shutdown occurred at about 2.19am this morning, June 3, 2024,”
“At about 1:15am this morning, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room and that staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room. Without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Centre was brought to zero,”
Other transmission substations shut down by the labour union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba, and Osogbo substations. Additionally, some transmission lines were opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.
On the power generation side, units from various generating stations were forced to shut down some of their plants.
“We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilize the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide.” TCN stated.
