Uche Usim, Abuja
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) on Thursday advised the public to disregard any publication or notice which indicates it was carrying out a verification exercise for disengaged workers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)
The Bureau, in a statement signed by its Spokesperson, Amina Tukur Othman, reacted to a correspondence captioned: “BPE-Notice To All Disengaged Staff Of Ex-PHCN Staff” written by a group represented by one Ndiwe Louis Okechukwu on behalf of former staff of the defunct PHCN to visit designated venues in the country with relevant documents and a processing fee of N1,000 each.
“The correspondence also said BPE has released 10,000 forms with a security number to all the zones across the country and that the forms must be returned in hard copies with specific requirements and after processing, payment would commence until the whole 48,000 staff are paid.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the BPE is not conducting another verification exercise for the defunct staff of the PHCN and is not in any way connected with the purported verification by the group. It must be noted that each time the Bureau carries out verification of former staff of the defunct PHCN, adequate publicity is carried out with the involvement of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and the Senior Staff Association Of Electricity And Allied Companies (SSAEC). But in the purported verification by the group these are absent,” Othman explained.
While dissociating the agency from the purported verification, she warned all former staff of the PHCN and public to be forewarned and forearmed.