By Victor Ahiuma-Young
LAGOS—WORKERS of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, yesterday, demanded for an unreserved apology from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over the recent arrest and harassment of officers of the union.

The union threatened  cut off power supply to all EFCC offices across the country if the appology was not tendered.

It will be recalled that two  officers of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Mr. Babatunde Issac, the Head of Administration and Mr Emeana Christopher, Personal Assistant to the General Secretary,  Mr. Joe Ajaero of the union were Thursday, arrested by the anti-graft agency.

Under the umbrella of NUEE, the workers in a statement by Comrade Reuben Peter Orlu, Head of  Information and Research, on behalf of the General Secretary, titled: “EFCC apologize or face withdrawal of services and strike action”, read in part: We are indeed deeply perturbed and emotionally injured by the inexplicable traumatic experience and shock we were immersed in by the action of the gun trotting officials of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) who barged and abducted workers from our National Secretariat _ 200, Herbert Macaulay Street, Adekunle_Yaba, Lagos on Thursday, January 13, 2011.

The invasion and harassment of our Leaders are only reminiscent of Military action in the jungle and this call for deeper reflection and introspective attention.

We believe under normal circumstances, the EFCC would not have displayed such high level of unprofessionalism and unprocedural norms exhibited to the National Union of Electricity Employees, which is why we consider an in_depth investigation into the anomaly of the EFCC absolutely imperative.”

“In an era of democratic dispensation, every move must be viewed in relation with its mode.  This explains why we are irked at the intimidation, harassment, mental torture of our members and leaders.

In this circumstance therefore, we demand an unreserved apology from the EFCC to assuage us in the inherent mental torture, traumatic and intimidating spook by the Commission; otherwise, we may be forced to withdraw our services from all EFCC formations nationwide.

Should this harassment and intimidation which we believe is aimed at coercing us to abandon our struggle against the unholy plan to privatize PHCN continues, we shall not hesitate to embark on Warning Strike nationwide. At this level of our national life, it is incumbent on us to strengthen our institutions for better and higher productivity.
Vanguard, however, gathered that the arrested unionists had since been released.