Members of the Eko Electrical Energy Distribution Firm board are at loggerheads over the sack of the corporation’s Managing Director/Chief Government Officer, Dr Tinuade Sanda.
Foxiz NIGERIA reviews that the agency changed Sanda with Mrs Rekhiat Momoh, who was stated to have taken over on Tuesday.
It was gathered that Sanda’s sack was communicated via a letter signed by the EKEDC Chairman, Dere Otubu, on March 25.
Otubu, in the choice to alleviate Sanda’s duties, adopted a directive from the Nigeria Electrical Energy Regulatory Fee.
“Now we have acquired a directive from NERC stating that each worker working for the utility should be employed directly by the utility, sure of relevant service situations relevant to the utility’s staff, and paid via the utility’s payroll.
“The Disco is obligated to comply with these directives due to NERC’s powers as stipulated in the Electrical Energy Act 2023. In compliance with the directive above, all seconded workers from WPG Ltd are being launched by Eko Electrical Energy Distribution Plc and returned to WPG Ltd.
“Accordingly, you’re hereby relieved of your function, workplace, and place at Eko Electrical Energy Distribution Plc successfully instantly and returned to your employer, WPG Ltd,” Otubu stated.
The PUNCH reported earlier that some senior workers of the Eko DisCo had recently been accused of ghost employee recruitment, fraud, and negligence, a declaration the agency stated was unfounded.
Reacting to the allegation, NERC ordered thorough investigations and directed that each present WPG secondee be returned to their unique employer.
Whereas asserting the change of management, the DisCo stated, “We want to inform most people that Mrs Rekhiat Momoh has assumed the function of Performing CEO of Eko Disco on twenty-sixth March 2024.
“This follows the redeployment of our erstwhile MD/CEO, Mrs Tinuade Sanda, again to WPG Ltd, the core investor who seconded her to Eko Disco.
The EKEDC stated, “Now we have confidence in her capacity to successfully carry out this function and take the corporation to higher heights.”
Nonetheless, in a rebuttal on Wednesday, Mr Babor Egeregor, a Director and Chairman of the Authorized & Regulatory Committee, disagreed with the chairman over Sanda’s sacking.
He stated the NERC didn’t order the elimination of any workers seconded to or employed by EKEDC besides those related to the alleged fraud and negligence.
“It has come to my discovery that by a letter dated twenty-sixth of March 2024, the Chairman of EKEDC, Mr Dere Otubu, purportedly terminated the Contract of Employment of Dr Tinuade Sanda, the MD/CEO of EKEDC, allegedly in compliance with orders/directives issued by the NERC.
“The NERC’s stated order, herein displayed, is unambiguous, incapable of, and unyielding to plural interpretations. There was nowhere within the order that NERC requested the elimination of any workers seconded to or employed by EKEDC besides those related to the alleged fraud and negligence, i.e., Wola Joseph Condotti, Sheri Adegbenro, and Aik Alenkhe,” he stated.
By Egregor, NERC’s directives have been issued to compel the EKEDC board, following the union’s picketing and unrelenting workers’ protests, “to behave appropriately within the face of the decided place of a majority of the board members to cover up the alleged use of ghost employees along with the alleged fraud and shield Wola Joseph Condotti, particularly”.
“Mr Dere Otubu’s letter, due to this fact, was achieved in dangerous religion and vengeful revenge towards the MD/CEO for escalating the alleged fraud and issuing queries towards one in all his protégés, whom he has desperately sworn to guard by all means.
“Relatively than adjust to the orders of NERC, a recourse to subterfuge was hatched with the purported termination. There aren’t any doubts about a few deliberate agendas and unconcealed mischief to misinterpret the orders of the NERC to malign Dr Sanda’s fame for daring to escalate and difficulty queries to Wola Joseph Condotti for alleged fraud via using ghost employees for three years and steady cost of salaries to exited workers regardless of personally receiving their resignation letters,” Egregor acknowledged.
He added that related queries had been issued to the Chief Audit and Compliance Officer, Sheri Adegbenro, and the Chief Human Resources Officer, Aik Alenkhe, “for their failure and gross negligence to audit and detect fraudulent funds on the payroll for over three years”.
On the appointment of Momoh because the Performing MD/CEO, Egregor stated, “The board of EKEDC, on which I sit, has neither met nor selected the purported appointment of Mrs Rekiah Momoh as Performing MD/CEO, besides Mr Otubu and his shut circle of colleagues have reworked themselves into ‘the board’.
“I imagine that I and all well-meaning members of the EKEDC board ought to vehemently distance ourselves from this contrivance.
“The board will not be a one-man present, and issues are to be collectively deliberated on and accredited by Board members. Mrs Momoh is the Chief Business Officer of EKEDC and stays so.”
Amid the allegations of fraud, the director took delight in saying that the EKEDC was identified for due course and legality, including that something that will erode the dedication to due course of and company governance can be resisted.
“Due to this fact, it has been identified that Dr Tinuade Sanda stays the MD/CEO of Eko Electrical Energy Distribution Firm and has since her assumption of the workplace because the MD/CEO turned EKEDC round for good, with adorable milestones and achievements which every sector participant recognises.
“She made EKEDC the primary distribution firm in Nigeria. The traders, board, and administration of EKEDC imagine firmly in her management and stay up for many extra record-setting and breaking moments,” he submitted.
Contacted, the EKEDC spokesperson, Babatunde Lasaki, advised our correspondent that Sanda was not sacked; however, they solely requested to step apart “till the realignment of the structural administration course is accomplished”.
By Lasaki, Momoh was appointed to keep away from a vacuum.
He didn’t react to Egregor’s allegations and refused to reply to the inquiry about whether Sanda would return to her workplace after the purported realignment of the structural administration course.
Equally, the NERC promised to react to the disaster, rocking the Eko Disco formally.
