Ambrose Alli University chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, claimed on Thursday that it had lost no fewer than 25 members since 2022 as a result of financial difficulties brought on by the alleged non-payment of its’ members monthly salary for the past 26 months.
Naija News reports that the union’s chairman at the Ekpoma branch of Ambrose Ali University, Cyril Oziegbe Onogbosele, further disclosed that non-academic staff union members were also suffering similar circumstances.
At a news conference in Benin City, Onogbosele bemoaned the terrible financial difficulties that the university’s employees are currently facing and warned that failure to address the current situation was an invitation to industrial crisis, restiveness, and an unwholesome university environment.
He claimed that since 2021, the institution has been suffering from the worst kind of maladministration, as seen by the fact that there hasn’t been a governing council or substantive primary executives.
He detailed that the university is currently going through its worst funding crisis, which is demonstrated by the selective payment of salaries and the outright denial of salaries to numerous staff members for up to 26 months starting in January 2022. He further alleged that staff members were being victimized, intimidated, and forced to endure hardship.
He said, “This present executive came on board on August 3, 2021, and since that period to date, we have lost not less than 25 members for my record.
“We are talking about academic staff and not non-academic staff. Non-academic staff also lost members, but I am not going to speak for them.
“The Special Intervention Team/Government’s repeated announcement that it does not owe staff of the university any salary is not true. It is a ploy to distract the public from the sordid reality of pains, hardship, and poverty facing the staff.
“The development has led to the deaths of many workers of the university, including professors, for lack of money to cater for themselves as a result of non-payment of salaries.”
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