Nigeria is presently experiencing a complete blackout due to the Labour Union’s shutdown of the national grid. According to TCN, the shutdown happened at approximately 2.19 am on June 3, 2024.
The federal government’s unwillingness to raise the minimum wage from N60,000 prompted the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) to begin an indefinite statewide strike today.
Taking to their X official handle, TCN released an official statement on why the NLC shutdown the national grid, resulting in a blackout.
The statement reads, “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 and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Center was brought to zero.
“Other transmission substations that were shut down, by the Labour Union include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba, and Osogbo Transmission Substations.
“Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour union.
“On the power generating side, power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants, the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency.
“The sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19am.”
