Members of academic and non-academic staff union of College of Education, Ilorin on Monday staged a peaceful protest to appeal to Kwara state government to pay their backlog of salaries before the end of the year.
The workers, who converged on the institution premises, singing solidarity song, called on well-meaning people in the state to help intervene on their demands.
Speaking with journalists, the Public Relations Officer of the College of Education Academic Staff Union ( COEASU), Comrade Ajado Mustapha, said that backlog of 181 per cent June, July 2017 salaries was yet to be paid.
“Sometimes last two weeks when we met with the state governor, he promised to settle all these problems on or before last week Friday. We waited until last week Friday and we are here still waiting until this moment. Nothing!.
“We have our October, November, December intervention fund from the state government yet to be released. We have our 2014 to date promotion cash backing not paid. All these and several other problems are causing much pain to our members. We have on several occasions approached the government, we have approached well-meaning Kwarans. We have approached Imams, pastors, and even the Ilorin Emirate Descendants’ Progressives Union IEDPU to help us speak, yet no commitment from the government.
“We want the government to react on or before 12 O’ clock today, otherwise, we have no power to hold on our members from embarking on a peaceful protest around the town”, he said.
Reacting to the development, chairman Governing Council of the college, Prince Aremu Atola, said that everything was under control, assuring that the workers’ salary would be paid this week, together with the salary of the state workers.
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Also speaking, Provost of the college, Dr Abdulraheem Yusuf, said that the problem had occurred before his assumption of the office until the salary accumulated to 181 per cent.
“The government is already aware on this issue. We all know what is going on today in this country I must correct you first there is no problem, when there is a congress there will be solidarity song and that is the song of solidarity during the Congress. They had their congress this morning. We have discussed with them and they believe us that yes, we would do everything humanly possible to ensure that the demands are met.
On how soon the workers would get their salaries, he said “as soon as practicable.
“We are leaving the college now for the Government House and we are going to discuss. We believe that we have a listening governor. We believe that he will listen to the demands of the staff of College of Education, Ilorin”, he said.
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