The Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State
Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described a
report of the reinstatement of the names of several unpaid staff of the
institution to its payroll as not only misleading, provocative and deceptive
but also wicked.
The university authorities had in the Wednesday, 6th
November, 2024 edition of the school's News Bulletin, claimed among others,
that names of "removed staff have been reinstated to the payroll,
receiving owed salaries spanning several months.”
In a joint statement weekend in Ekpoma by Dr. Cyril
Onogbosele and Dr. William Odion, the Chairman and Assistant Secretary
respectively of the local chapter of ASUU and made available to journalists in
Benin, they stated that the story was a ploy by the Acting Vice Chancellor,
Prof. Samuel Olowo and the Dr. Frank Omo-Ehiele Odafen-led Governing Council to
conceal and sustain the victimization of several staff and the unjust denial of
their salaries by the administration of former Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki
and the dissolved Special Intervention Team (SIT).
Onogbosele and Odion maintained that as at this month,
November 2024, many academic staff who are ASUU members have not been paid
their monthly salaries up to 34 months, despite several memoranda to the
university authorities and the Governing Council.
They lamented: "Painfully, there are neither
cases of misconduct against the affected staff nor are there trials for
violations of the university’s rules and regulations to warrant such
treatments. It is dehumanizing, unjust and evil for the University
Administration to deny innocent academic staff of their salaries for almost
three years.”
The unionists insisted that the affected staff perform
their duties which included teaching, research and community service and also
carried out statutory responsibilities.
On the stoppage of deductions and remittance of ASUU
membership dues, the chairperson and scribe expressed dissatisfaction over the
reluctance or unwillingness of the authorities to restore the money stopped in
March 2022 during the tenure of the former Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sonnie
Adagbonyin.
The duo disclosed that the University Administration
was in default of remitting deducted dues to ASUU for 15 months from September
2020 to December 2020, and January 2021 to November 2021, with an amount
not less than N27 million.
The unionists also described the claim by the
authorities in the aforementioned bulletin that there was proper constitution
of the Governing Council and that elections were held to fill vacant positions
in compliance with the relevant laws, as a fallacy.
Onogbosele and Odion disclosed that the University
Administration and the Governing Council were yet to resolve the anomalies and
breaches of the school’s laws that characterized the elections of internal
members, particularly Convocation and Senate Representatives of Council.
They emphasized that the present Governing Council of
the school was not duly and fully constituted, noting that several letters have
been written to the University Administration and the Council by the union over
the matter.
As a way of resolving the lingering problems in the
state owned tertiary institution, the union implored the authorities to toe the
path of truth, sincerity, justice and fairness in dealing with the unresolved
issues in the university.
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