NBET boss threat to staff—Management

The crisis rocking the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC has taken another dimension, as the management of the agency declared Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer Marilyn Amobi as source of threat to staff members.

To this end, the management staff have petitioned the federal government over alleged threat of physical attack by Amobi on the agency’s head of corporate services, Ms Itohan Ehiede.

The concerned management staff raised the alarm in the petition, copies of which were separately  sent to the minister of power, Saleh Mamman, his finance, budget and national planning counterpart, Zainab Ahmed, who chairs NBET Board of Directors, and the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Professor James Momoh.

In a copy of the petition obtained by  Blueprint Monday in Abuja, they  said if their concerns were not urgently considered, Amobi may carry out her threat of physical attack on the staff member.

The   petition was signed by the general manager, legal/ general counsel and company secretary, Nnaemeka Ewelukwa; general manager, projects and research, Abba Aliyu and deputy general manager, financial controller, Johnson Akinnawo.

Other signatories were the deputy general manager/ head, corporate services, Itohan Ehiede; deputy general manager, deputy general counsel, Eugene Edeoga; and assistant general manager, risk and guarantees, Demvihin Tsumba.

The petition, which is dated December 10, 2019, alleged that with the development, NBET currently could not discharge responsibility of providing a safe work environment for all its employees.  

The petition reads: “The management of NBET hereby notifies the honourable minister of a significant event that took place on Friday, 6th December, 2019, in the office of the Managing Director/ CEO.

“The MD/CEO, Dr. Marilyn Amobi, was in an uncontrollable fit of rage and in the course of berating two (2) members of NBET executive management in her office for their lawful conduct of official duty, the MD/CEO threatened to use physical violence on one of them in person of Mrs Itohan Ehiede, the Head, Corporate Services.

“We consider that from a regulatory pint of view, NBET cannot currently discharge the responsibility of providing ‘ a safe work environment for all employees free from any hazards’ as there is high likelihood that the MD/ CEO may good on her threat to physically attack a member of staff.

“From a corporate point of view, we consider that unless the matter is treated with utmost priority, there will likely be a breach of peace in the organisation and potential breakdown of law and order if the MD/CEO proceeds on this stated course of action against Mrs Ehiede or any other staff of the organisation. The MD/CEO, whose responsibility is to ensure a safe work environment, is now the source of threat to staff of the organisation’’.

 When Blueprint contacted Dr. Amobi Tuesday night for her reaction to the allegations, she initially didn’t pick her call but later responded and asked our reporter to call back one hour later.

And in compliance, our reporter called back, but the calls went unanswered while the text messages sent to her two lines were not replied as at the time of filing this story.

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