AAU Lecturers Demand Payment Of 17 Month Salary Arrears,

There is lamentation among lecturers in Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State as they are currently being owed 17 months salary arrears.
Their pains were made public at a congress meeting on Monday, June 5, where the university’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) denounced the deliberate denial of salaries to some staff since the inception of the university’s Special Intervention Team (SIT).
A joint statement issued after the meeting signed by Dr. Cyril Onogbosele and Dr. Williams Odion, chairperson and assistant secretary respectively of the local ASUU chapter, blamed SIT for the deliberate denial of their legitimate salaries since January 2022 under the guise of re-positioning the institution.
The two leaders accused the SIT, which was set up by Governor Godwin Obaseki last year to manage the affairs of the school following the dissolution of the governing council, of gloating over the suffering, victimisation, repression and oppression of the affected staff.
Fuming in anger, the unionists described the selective payment of salaries by the authorities, which they insisted was without just cause, as “heartless, callous and inconceivable cruelty against humanity.”
They accused the authorities of not showing concern about the career progression of staff of the university as clearly demonstrated in the lack of interest in their appraisal and promotion since SIT was inaugurated.
The lecturers expressed disappointment and disenchantment over pay-cut that has become the hallmark of salary payment to some staff in the state owned tertiary institution, maintaining that SIT’s regime of pay-cut has crumbled the national statutory salary structure of staff.
The chairman and secretary lamented that there was never disciplinary process against the staff being denied salaries and no explanation had been offered for the stoppage of their salaries from January 2022 till date.
“Congress implores the Visitor to the University/Governor of Edo State to urgently prevail on the university authorities to resolve the salary crisis in the university without further delay,” part of the union statement read.
The lecturers reaffirmed their criticism of the interim report presented by the SIT to the state government in May, stressing that it was designed to blackmail academic staff over some of the problems bedevilling the university in order to give government and the general public the impression that the SIT was doing well in ‘repositioning’ the Institution.