The academic members of staff from the 110 Unity Schools across the country have protested non-payment of three-year salary arrears of about N3.4 billion owed by the Federal Government.

The teachers, who besieged the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja, yesterday, also lamented that the ministry was yet to pay them their first 28 days after being employed, said to be over N500 million for the affected 1,700 teachers.

One of the protesters, who spoke with The Guardian, said those recruited by the ministry in 2018, 2019 and 2020 as Education Officers were being owed three years salary arrears.

According to him, over 1,700 of them teaching in Unity Colleges across the country were affected.

Meanwhile, an official of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) in charge of Education Officers’ Files on Salary Arrears, Moses Brown, blamed the development on lack of funds.

Also, Director, Human Resource in the ministry, Omotayo Adeyemi, said that resources required for the files to be worked on would be made available.

He also urged the teachers to constitute a five-man committee that would join the ministry in fast-monitoring the process from Monday next week.