EKSU Staff Unions Protest Unpaid Arrears, Lock VC’s Office
The Vice- Chancellor, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Prof. Oladipo Aina, was on Wednesday locked out of office by aggrieved members of staff over unpaid allowances and other labour issues.
Aina and other members of the Senate of the university that were supposed to hold a meeting at the Administrative Building of the institution were caught unawares by the action of the workers.
The unions that carried out the protest were: Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and the Nigerian Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
The chairman of the local branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Olufayo Olu-Olu, was also among those locked out.
The action by the workers came barely 24 hours after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Pastor Kola Oluwawole, that the Governing Council of the school was engaging in a contract bazaar to the tune of N2.5 billion and the projects were phoney ones.
It was gathered that NASU members had been at loggerheads with the management of the school over unpaid allowances and non-remittance of check-off dues to the purse of the union.
Following alleged recalcitrant posture of the institution’s management on their plight, angry NASU members massed on the campus on Wednesday at about 7am where critical decisions, including preventing the Senate members from entering the chambers for their statutory meeting, were taken.
Senate members, who arrived the institution, immediately left to forestall possible attacks.
When called on telephone, the Chairman of SSANU, EKSU Chapter, Comrade Ismail Falade, who confirmed the incident, said the action became inevitable as a result of insensitivity to their yearnings and aspirations.
Falade said, “The government has not been giving us subventions as and when due. The wage bill of the institution stands at N400 million while government is managing to release as low as N200 million monthly.
“Apart from that, the little the government is releasing has not been getting to us as and when due thereby causing delay in payment of salaries and other allowances.”
The VC, Prof Aina, who responded to the bizarre scenario, said the issue had been resolved with the rampaging union members.
He said, “I think they were after some allowances that were approved for them by the Federal Government. We started paying the allowance last month and they are requesting for us to pay up. Though, we have met and the matter has been settled amicably.”
The ongoing second semester examinations of the school were not affected by the workers’ action.
Culled From Frontier News
