Diaspora Ebonyians fault Umahi’s proscription of unions in EBSU

• Tell gov to respect Ebonyi as PDP state

Association of Ebonyi State Indigenes in the Diaspora (AESID) has faulted the Governor Dave Umahi-led administration’s proscription of affiliate unions in Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki.

While he spared the Students Union Government (SUG), Umahi proscribed the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and other affiliate unions in the university.

In a statement yesterday, AESID president, Paschal Oluchukwu, raised the alarm over what he called “widespread insecurity” in the state. He remarked that the proscription order was akin to an attempt to decimate the legacies of Umahi’s predecessors.

“AESID condemns in its entirety the actions and threats meted out to the lecturers of EBSU by the Umahi government and cautions that it should stop forthwith and take their welfare seriously, especially considering the high illiteracy level in Ebonyi, which is yet to be captured as an Educationally-Less-Developed State (ELDS).

“We commend the description of the governor’s action by the ASUU National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, as ‘an aberration because even past military dictators never denied ASUU its right to freedom of association and consequent agitations for better welfare of its members,” he stated.

The group, therefore, gave Umahi 48 hours to re-negotiate with the affiliate unions to restore the good industrial harmony and peaceful co-existence between staff and students of the institution.

“He shouldn’t play further petty politics with the lives and welfare of our only state-owned university,” AESID warned.On the governor’s alleged plan to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), the group noted: “While acknowledging his rights to freedom of association as enshrined in the constitution, we request him not to coerce, intimidate or pressure politicians and stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) into his APC defection plans because Ebonyi remains a traditional PDP state for now, and any attempt to muzzle people into where they feel they do not properly fit into, just to help one man fulfil his lust for political power, could spell doom for the peace and unity of our dear state.”

Lamenting the level of insecurity in the state, the group said that Akubaraoha Youth Assembly (AYA) was empowered with cutlasses to tackle the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests.

“We ask the police and other federally-recognised security agencies to rather intervene in restoring peace, law and order in our dear state, rather than resort to the use of untrained thugs to attempt to checkmate hoodlums,” the statement added.