ASUU debunks report of AAU reinstating unpaid workers 

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 misleading, provocative, and deceptive.

The university authorities had on November 6, 2024, in an 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 in Ekpoma by Dr Cyril Onogbosele and Dr William Odion, the Chairman and Assistant Secretary respectively of the local chapter of ASUU, alleged that the story was a ploy by the acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Samuel Olowo and Dr Frank Odafen-led Governing Council to conceal and sustain the victimisation of some 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 of November 2024, many academic staff who are ASUU members have not been paid their monthly salaries for 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 performed 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.