Salary Crisis In AAU, Ekpoma Is Far From Being Resolved – ASUU Alleges

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The Edo State Government has not resolved the salary crisis in the state-owned Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared.

In a statement made available to newsmen in Benin City on Saturday, the University’s Chapter of ASUU faulted and condemned the statement credited to Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr. Chris Osa Nehikhare on Thursday, 29 September 2022 to the effect that salaries of staff in the University “have been paid up to August 2022 and that the University is running smoothly.”
The Union insisted that the State Government is in default of payment of more than 4 billion naira of arrears of emoluments (salaries, trade unions’ check-off dues, cooperative savings and other deductions) in the University.
Rising from the Congress on Friday at Ekpoma, the University Chapter of ASUU described the Commissioner’s statement as laughable and misleading, disclosing that 2022 salaries have been paid (willy-nilly) to staff even before the commencement of the ongoing nation-wide strike by the Union.
“There are even some members of staff who have not been paid their January and February 2022 salaries when there was no strike, and since then the University has been effecting selective and amputated payment of salaries to staff”, the Union declared.
In the press statement signed by Dr. Cyril Oziegbe Onogbosele and Dr. Willam Odion, the University’s Chairman and Assistant Secretary of ASUU respectively, the Union stated that workers (academic and non-academic staff) of the University are being owed twenty-four (24) months (September 2020 to September 2022) of arrears of emoluments which include salaries, trade unions’ check-off dues and other deductions.
The Union recalled that no fewer than 350 staff of the University had their salaries suddenly stopped on the arbitrary order or directive of the University’s Special Intervention Team (SIT) without any form of query or existing disciplinary action instituted against the affected individual staff.
 Hence the non-payment of their January and February salaries by the University Management, with no specific reason or explanation offered to date, to the affected staff.
The Union counselled the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation to carry out an independent investigation about the happenings in the University and to stop relying on the distorted and manipulated report of the situation in the University.
According to the Union, “instead of resolving the problem, the University Administration and government agents have chosen the use of propaganda, falsehood and lies to conceal the truth about the situation of things in the University.”
The also Union stated that the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation should have asked himself and the University Administration what had become of the Edo State Government’s directive of June 8 this year for the immediate payment of all outstanding salaries in the University – a directive which was obeyed in gross default.
The Union expressed dismay over the deliberate refusal of the Acting Vice-Chancellor (AVC) of the University, Prof. Asomwan Sonnie Adagbonyin, to comply with the Edo State Government’s directive which directed the AVC and the University Administration to pay all outstanding emoluments of workers in the University with effect from 8th June, 2022.
The Union also took on the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation on his claim that the University was running smoothly and that the University’s ASUU had opted out of the ongoing nationwide strike by the Union.
The Union asserted that a look at the University will show that all is not well. The Union accused the University Administration of fraudulently running two separate academic sessions (2020/2021 and 2021/2022) simultaneously when the old academic session is far.

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