Kogi higher institutions begin warning strike

THE Joint Action Committee (JAC) of tertiary institutions in Kogi State has directed its members to embark on a 5-day warning strike from next Monday to press home their demands.

A communiqué was  issued on Thursday at the end of a meeting that was held at the Kogi state college of education, Ankpa,stated  the warning strike would be a prelude the indefinite one.

The statement, which was signed by JAC chairman, Tolufase Henry, and secretary, Akubo Odoma,  said the meeting held with top government officials led by the Secretary to the state government, Folashade Arike ended with none of their demands being met .

It said the SSG wanted JAC to give the government two weeks to publish the names of affected workers by the review committee.

But the committee rejected the demand, saying it was wrong for government to make such demand after 12 months of screening exercise.

It stressed that all statement issued by JAC remained valid till government attended to their demands.

It was noted that the report of the screening committee was incomplete and did not bring up the list of staff that had unclear issues with the screening committee nor did it disclose reasons why each person was not cleared.

The communique urged government to give the persons that were not cleared a final opportunity to defend themselves before an appeal committee within a period of one month after which established fraudulent practices should be prosecuted.

JAC added that membership of the appeal committee should not include members of the current review committee and include JAC representatives.

The communique reads, “As a matter of urgency and necessity, the congress wants government to appoint persons who are credible, experienced and are of unquestionable character to various governing councils of tertiary institutions in the state”.

The statement said since there was no directive from government on specific banks to operate as salary account; declaring such categories of workers as ghost workers was unacceptable as they should be cleared and paid immediately.