The unending crisis rocking Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc (EKEDP) has taken a new turn with the shareholders and management locked in a fierce fight in what observers fear undermine the operational efficiency of the utility company..
The company has been at the centre of allegations of fraud allegedly orchestrated by some employees, accused of aiding ghost workers in the company. The ghost workers were said to have been on the company’s payroll for 3 years and were operating as conduit to siphon financial benefits due to the Federal Government and WPG, the majority shareholder in the DISCO.
The unfortunate discovery was said to have been made when a senior official of the firm attempted, via an Internal Memo to the CEO, to increase the salary of one of the ghost workers, with salary raise being the quantum that procedurally required the approval of the Board. This later aroused suspicion and questions which eventually culminated in a formal query issued against the CLO.
It was also discovered that there were salary payments to two exited staff of the Legal Department.
Miffed by this development, the CEO queried the Chief Audit & Compliance Officer and the Chief Human Resources Officer for negligence given their responsibilities to audit and to vet payrolls.
The CEO’s action was said to have angered certain members of the Board of Directors who consider the CLO, at the centre of the storm their protege.
It was further alleged that attempts to sweep the matter under the carpet were met with stiff resistance from the employee Union, NUEE which insisted on justice being done with the application of the same conditions of service which the CLO, acting as Disciplinary Committee Chair, deployed to sack one Engr. Oyelude, a senior staff of the organization said to have been sacked for his alleged negligence in the case of a staff under him had absconded from duty while still salaries over some months.
“We received information that the Board of Directors of EKEDP constituted a Disciplinary Committee that was divided along lines.
Dr, Dere Otubu, Mr. Olowolafe Olatunji and Charles Momoh were disposed to ‘overlook’ the offence while Messrs. Babor Egeregor and the Ag Director General of the BPE, representing the interest of the Federal Government on the Board, insisted on justice, equality, meaning the dismissal and refund of the lost funds of the company.’ The stakeholders alleged.
They further stated that majority outvoted the two-minority party and declared the offence to be a mere administrative lapse.
This decision further stoked tension among staff, but the majority were unrelenting to impose their decision.
It was also stated that Personnel of the DSS were deployed to guard the CLO, Wola Joseph Condotti, alongside the Police to prevent the breakdown of law and order.
According to the agitated stakeholders on March 18, 2024, the company through its Directors in the majority issued a media statement reporting a comprehensive investigation into the matter by its Human Resources Committee established no evidence of fraud, negligence, or conspiracy against any staff members, this has however not resolved the crisis but has seemingly divided shareholders and management who are now bent on outdoing each other.
They further stated that has became clear that the shareholders made this event an opportunity to tussle over control and also test the strength of their respective real and imagined financial and political powers rather than focus on genuinely resolving the legal and ethical issues of the alleged offence that had become an albatross on the coprorate identity and image of the company.
Following the worsening ghost workers allegations and the controversy that ensued, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission waded into the matter by meeting with board members earlier in the month and subsequently forwarded a letter to the management of EKEDC on March 21, 2024, directing amongst others that all personnel working in the company should be directly employed and enrolled in EKEDC payroll.
It said the crisis posed a reputational risk to both EKEDC and the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
However, on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, the Chairman of EKEDC, Dere Otubu in a letter recalled Sanda from her position unilaterally, back to her parent company, with immediate effective and directed her to handover to the most senior official in the company, a move that some shareholders of the company and Directors have declared as illegal and would not stand.
“The adequacy of the steps taken by EKEDC’s board to address the matter was also discussed and it was also unanimously agreed that further measures were required to address this particular incident along with putting in place safeguards to mitigate future risk.
“Further deliberations were held by the Commission after the meeting with EKEDC’s board, and the Commission resolved as follows;
EKEDC is hereby directed to terminate forthwith the existing secondment arrangement whereby lawyers employed Messrs. George Etomi & Partners (“GEP”) are seconded to EKEDC to work as members of EKEDC’s in-house legal team. All secondees on this arrangement are to be returned to GEP and EKEDC may contract with the firm to provide services as external counsel on an arm’s length basis through a retainer legal service or contracting on a case-by- case basis.
b. EKEDC is hereby directed to ensure that all staff working for the utility company are employed by the utility company directly, and are to be bound by applicable service conditions that are applicable to the employee of the utility and paid through the utility’s payroll.
“The Commission has specified 27 March 2024 as the return date for you to file evidence of compliance with the aforementioned directives, failing, which we shall intervene..”