Two Pensioners Slump At PHCN Biometric Exercise

The on-going Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) staff revalidation exercise took a dangerous dimension yesterday in Port Harcourt as two retirees slumped while two impersonators were arrested.
The two retirees, who are in their late sixties were rushed to unidentified clinics while the two impersonators were handed over to men of the State Security Service (SSS) for interrogation.
Some of the PHCN staff who spoke to The Tide decried the inhuman treatment in the exercise.
They said the staff were being asked to fill one form after another, noting that for over four days, some of them have come to Port Harcourt from Ibadan, Enugu and Lagos but had been stranded because the exercise, which they thought would end in two days, appears to be dragging on for a week.
Our correspondent, who covered the event said thousands of retirees and staff who were not captured in the earlier exercise and were yet to get their severance benefits besieged the venue.
A top member of the validation committee, who pleaded anonymity, blamed the chaotic situation on the unco-operative attitude of the staff.
He said, “some of them here do not have necessary documents thereby making it difficult to capture them. Some of them who claim to be next-of-kin to deceased staff do not even have the identification card or letters of appointment.
He revealed that some were attended to in Lagos when they were in Lagos and because their cases were not credible, they equally rushed to Port Harcourt.
“As you can see, there is no light here, we have to hire generators but we are attending to them as much as we can”, the officer said.
Deputy National President of National Union of Electricity Employees,(NUEE) Comrade Chimaobi Aneke, who corroborated what the officer said, blamed the situation on the uncontrollable attitude of the staff.
Some don’t have their pensions letters, identification cards and other necessary documents, he said, adding that they had been trying to control them, but to no avail.
But the Public Relations Officer of NUEE, Rivers State branch, Comrade Austin Owaka decried the procedure, accusing the committee of not following due process in the exercise.
“Almost all my state council union members were laid off because they championed workers course. People who retired many years ago are still owed”, he said, noting that the new investors disengaged good hands and retained dead woods who they pay peanuts.

Chris Oluoh