The Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has debunked the University Authority’s claim of reinstatement of the names of several unpaid staff of the institution to its payroll, describing the report as not only misleading, provocative and deceptive but also wicked and callous.
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.”
ASUU in a joint statement by Dr. Cyril Onogbosele and Dr. William Odion, the Chairman and Assistant Secretary respectively of the AAU chapter and made available to journalists in Benin, 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 painfully lamented that 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.
Concerning the stoppage of deduction and remittance of ASUU membership dues, the Union expressed dissatisfaction over the reluctance or unwillingness of the University Administration to restore the deduction and remittance of staff unions’ dues stopped by the University Administration in March 2022 during the administration of the former Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sonnie Adagbonyin.
The Union disclosed that the University Administration was in default of remitting deducted dues to ASUU for fifteen (15) months (September 2020 to December 2020, and January 2021 to November 2021), with a sum of money not less than N27,000,000.00 (twenty seven million naira).
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.
It also called on the general public and Edo State Government to intervene in the crises rocking the University and prevail on the University authorities to refrain from actions or inactions capable of perpetuating industrial disharmony in the university.
