CITY NEWS Staff vow to shut down UniAbuja over non-payment of full salaries
Senior staff the University of Abuja yesterday staged a peaceful protest over alleged non-payment of their full salaries by the management. in
They said they would be forced to shut down the university if the management did not address the situation by the end of the month.
The protesters carried placards and banners with several inscriptions including, ‘PMB Save University of Abuja Now’, ‘Illegal Recruitment is a Corruption’, ‘Pay us our Salaries’, and ‘No to Official Corruption’ and ‘Release 2015 Audit Report’.
The aggrieved staff, under the auspices of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), marched from the university’s mini campus to SDP Junction in Gwagwalada.
Chairman of SSANU branch, Comrade Jude Nwabueze, said the union’s decision to embark on the peaceful protest was as a result of series of failed efforts to convince the university management to pay full salaries of its staff.
He alleged that the management since May had been paying staff salaries in percentage of their basic salaries only.
The union also accused the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Michael Adikwu, of alleged selective and illegal recruitment of staff since he assumed office in 2014.
It appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and also release the 2015 white paper visitation panel to the university.
“Besides, other universities are paying their staff full salaries; we see no reason why the University of Abuja’s case should be different. And if by the end of this month after the students finish their exams nothing was done, we have no option than shut down the university completely,” he said.
The Vice Chancellor had earlier told our reporter that the pro rata payment of salary was forced on the university due to shortfall in disbursement from the federal government.
“This cuts across all varsities in the country and the employment which they claimed was illegal, due process was followed,” he said.
He said employments were necessitated by the need to meet requirements by the academic programs.