TASCE loses 49 employees to hunger, illnesses

Workers of Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), Omu-Ijebu, Ogun State, yesterday protested against alleged non-payment of 30 months salaries and 48 months of salary-increment arrears by the state government.

The staff members, who protested at the Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ) Secretariat in Abeokuta, lamented that they were dying of hunger.

The Chairman, Coalition of Tai-Solarin College of Education Staff, Mr. Daniel Aborisade, claimed that the institution had lost 49 staff members to “hunger and illnesses,” as a result of the state government’s refusal to honour its words.

Aborisade also claimed that Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who has never visited the institution since he assumed office in 2011, “is yet to disburse any funds for payment of the staff members.”

According to him, the government, rather than settle the dispute amicably, resorted to “blackmail and media propaganda.”

His words: “In the last five years, we have not enjoyed promotion in the College of Education. Our cooperatives, special target and pensions deductions have not been remitted in the last eight years of Amosun’s administration.

“But on January 18, 2019, Secretary to the State Government, Taiwo Adeoluwa, placed advertorials in some national dailies with the caption, We Do Not Owe Salary In TASCE.”