Gwagwalada teachers protest deduction for laptops

Some primary school teachers in Gwagwalada Area Council have protested over alleged deductions from their salaries.

The teachers, in their hundreds carrying placards, converged on the office of the Local Education Authority (LEA) in the area on Thursday.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters, Musa Ezekiel, said they embarked on the protest over the deduction of N6,000 from their salaries for laptops, which he said was yet to be given to them by the authorities.

“They brought a form for us to fill and they promised that they would give us the laptop before they will commence deduction of N4,500 as agreed, but to our dismay, they started deducting N6,000 since December last year and we have not seen any laptop,” he said.

“So we are now saying they should stop deducting the money from our salaries as we are no longer interested in the laptop,” he said.

Reacting, the chairman of Gwagwalada branch of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Comrade Idris Ismail, said the union was aware of the laptop issue. He said the union would meet with the affected teachers to know those who were no longer interested in the laptops so that it would channel the issue to the appropriate quarters for appropriate action.

Addressing the protesting teachers, the secretary of the Local Education Authority (LEA), in the area, Hajiya Safiya Tukura, assured that her office would look into the matter to see how it would be addressed.

She disclosed that a six-man committee would be constituted by the LEA to look into the laptop issue.