The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ambrose Ali University branch in Edo State, claims that the institution is presently facing its darkest period of zero funding, staff victimization, intimidation, imposition, and the dispensation of hardship on staff.
The union alleges that the situation at the university is evident in the selective payment of salaries, outright denial of salaries to many staff for up to 26 months, and the deliberate non-remittance of deductions from staff salaries in favor of unions and welfare/cooperative societies.
The Chairperson of ASUU, AAU, Ekpoma chapter, Dr. Oziebge Onogbosele, disclosed this to journalists in Benin City. He also alleged that 25 lecturers in the institution have died in the last two years while waiting for 26 months of unpaid salaries.
According to him, “We are distressed and in crisis. Unpaid salaries can take a toll on one’s health. It is worrisome when you don’t have money to buy drugs, and the endpoint is death.
Our union is saying enough is enough. This inhuman situation in the university can no longer be tolerated, and it is time for serious resistance against the unending problem of the payment of salaries to staff in the university,” he stated.
Continuing, Onogbosele said the university has been experiencing the worst form of maladministration, as evident in the absence of a governing council and substantive principal officers since 2021.
He said, “Without prejudice to the various cases in the law courts, the Special Intervention Team (SIT) has become the university’s albatross, and the State’s Obaseki-led administration has deliberately made it so.
As you are already aware, AAU Ekpoma is the only known public university in Nigeria that has been managed since May 2021 by a body called SIT in total deviation from the universally accepted norms, laws, and best global practice.
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“It is important to note that some members of the said SIT are by educational qualification not qualified to teach in a university, let alone administer a university. The highest academic qualification of one of them, Mr. Austin Osakue is NCE.
By virtue of Section 2(b) of the said law, the Visitor constituted a 10-member SIT to exercise all the powers and functions of the Council as enshrined in Ambrose Alli University Establishment Law 1999 (As Amended).”
The Head of Communication, AAU, Mr. Otunba Mike Aladenika, was yet to respond to the allegations at the time of filing this report.
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