College staff drag Amosun to Buhari over N4b salary arrears

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State may be in for more trouble, as staff of Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), Omu-Ijebu, yesterday, dragged him to President Muhammadu Buhari.

They appealed to Buhari to intervene in a “sorrowful situation”, which, according to them, has led to the death of 45 of their members since 2011.

Amosun is still licking his wounds from a bruised nose he recently suffered from his political rivals who pushed him out of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In a Save-Our-Soul letter to the president, a copy which was made available to journalists in Abeokuta, the aggrieved staff complained that the state government was owing them N4 billion Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CTISS) and Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CUASS) arrears between July 2009 and October 2018.

The debt was said to have been incurred by both the immediate past governor, Gbenga Daniel, and Amosun.

They begged Buhari to compel Amosun’s government to use part of the last tranche of the Paris Club refund to pay them.

Alleging that Amosun’s government paid only half salary for the first three months immediately he assumed office in 2011, they lamented that since then his government had not paid the balance.

“Between August 2017 and the time of writing this report, the percentage of the monthly salary paid to workers in the college has increased to 60 (September 2017 to September 2018).

“The state government is yet to look into the payment of the backlog despite series of appeals. The non-payment of staff salaries for several months has taken its toll on the staff of the college.

“Between May 2011 and October 2018, the college has lost 45 staff. Some of these staff died because of little medical expenses that could not be paid. Several other staff had been subjected to the nursing of terminal ailments occasioned by the psychological effect of non-payment of salaries. It is more devastating to note that we have husbands and wives working together in the college and are being subjected to this high level of dehumanisation,” the statement read in part.