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ASUP to begin strike over unpaid salary arrears, others

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) on Friday threatened to embark on strike from April 6, over unresolved issues with the Federal Government and some states governments.

In a communiqué issued at the end of its 99th National Executive Council meeting in Katsina and signed by the President, Mr. Anderson Ezeibe, ASUP said the decision was to draw the government’s attention to the need to release the 10 months arrears of the new minimum wage owed its members in federal polytechnics across the country.

The union also urged some state governments to pay up arrears of the new minimum wage owed polytechnic lecturers in their states.

The communiqué read: “There is the need to implement the contents of the NEEDS Assessment report of 2014 in public polytechnics and similar institutions.

Another issue is the reconstitution of Governing Councils in all federal polytechnics and some state-owned polytechnics where such is yet to be constituted.

“Others are the full implementation of the provisions of the Federal Polytechnics Act as well as its domestication in Adamawa, Kano, Sokoto, Abia, Niger, and other affected states.”

ASUP demanded the release of salaries owed its members in Abia, Ogun, Osun, Benue, Plateau, Edo, and Cross River as well as the full payments of members’ salaries in Sokoto, Kaduna, Adamawa, and others.

The union appealed to the government to withdraw the letter containing unsubstantiated claims of Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax liabilities in 19 federal polytechnics.

It also urged Kano and Kaduna governments to implement the 65 years retirement age for academic staff in tertiary institutions in their states.

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Osun State chapter, on Friday passed a “vote of no confidence” on the Rector of the institution, Dr. John Adekolawole, who has been indicted for alleged corruption, maladministration and sexual misconduct.

The ASUP members, who addressed journalists at the end of its monthly Congress in Ede, demanded the removal of the rector and vowed not to resume academic activities until their demands are met by Federal Government.

Lecturers at the polytechnic have been on strike for weeks.

They also urged the federal government to set up a visitation panel to investigate all the allegations against Adekolawole and appoint an acting rector to run the affairs of the polytechnic.

The ASUP national leadership had in December last year also passed a vote of no-confidence on the embattled rector and asked the federal government to suspend him over the allegations.

In a letter to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, and signed by ASUP President, Anderson Ezeibe, the union called for Adekolawole’s suspension to avoid anarchy at the polytechnic.

The union noted that the rector had previously been suspended by the polytechnic for two months for alleged sexual harassment.

The letter read:

“The Rector had continued in defiance of the resolutions of the meeting which found him culpable of the allegations of mounting an illegal programme thereby defrauding unsuspecting members of the public over the years, acts of plagiarism, turning the Polytechnic into his family affair through indiscriminate and undeserving promotions and posting of members of his immediate family into sensitive positions in the Institution, victimization of staff and proven cases of fraudulent transactions in the polytechnic.”