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Tag: unpaid salary

  • ASUU shuts Bayelsa varsity over unpaid salary arrears

    ASUU shuts Bayelsa varsity over unpaid salary arrears

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the Bayelsa State-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) has commenced a sit-at-home protest following the inability of the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration to pay lecturers of the university five-month salary arrears.

    Investigations revealed that ASUU at the weekend directed its members to vacate the campus and to suspend all academic activities till further notice.

    When our correspondent visited the school on Friday, no lecturer reported to work and classrooms were found empty.

    Ongoing examinations were suspended and students were seen leaving the campus and the university community for their various homes.

    The ASUU Chairman in NDU, Stanley Ogoun, confirmed the development and said lecturers could no longer be discharging their duties without money to run their daily expenses.

    He said: “We have started the sit-at-home action and this means suspension of all academic activities relating to teaching and examination of students”.

    But the Bayelsa State Government appealed to ASUU and other workers in the state not to despair over the economic crisis facing the state insisting that clearing their backlog of salaries remained the first-line charge of Dickson.

    The government in a statement co-signed by the two political advisers to the governor, Mr. Fyneman Wilson and Mr. Steven Diver, said the governor and his team were going through sleepless nights to pay the workers.

    The statement said the governor had already set up a Financial Management Committee chaired by the deputy Governor, Mr. John Jonah, to review monthly financial obligations and satisfy the basic ones.

    “To this effect, paying workers’ salaries always come first before other financial obligations. Steps are already being taken to ensure the payment of salaries within the shortest possible time.

    “We are appealing to workers to exercise some patience because they will soon receive their pay. We also appreciate Bayelsans for displaying sense of maturity and understanding despite the difficult time they are going through,” the statement said.

    The statement also highlighted the economic difficulties faced by the state adding that it was painful for a state which used to collect an average of N16bn monthly to settle for N2.9bn in January and N1.6bn in March.

    According to the statement allocations of three months were not enough to pay over N4bn monthly salaries of the workers.

    It said the verification committee set up by the government to clean the payrolls of public servants would ensure that genuine, honest and hard-working workers received their entitlements.

    The statement said: “The Dickson’s administration is the one that values all workers in the state and committed to improving the welfare of workers including paying gratuities and pensions of retired workers.

    “The governor has also taken steps to strengthen the Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR). He should be commended for looking inwards”.

    It also clarified that the government received N1.285bn bailout fund for the eight local government areas instead of N12.85bn wrongly reported in the media.

    “The Dickson-led administration in Bayelsa is focused. When this economic crisis started in the country, Bayelsa managed to stay afloat because of the governor’s prudence in the management of scarce resources.

    “Following the submission of verification reports from the local government areas, the government will soon direct the various councils to start paying salaries of their workers,” the statement said.

  • Teacher, wife attack proprietor over unpaid salary

    A 64-year-old teacher, Samuel Mensah, and his wife, Matilda, were yesterday arraigned before a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court in Lagos for allegedly attacking a school proprietor with hammer over unpaid salary.

    Mensah and Matilda, 42, are facing a four-count charge of conspiracy, wounding, assault occasioning harm and malicious damage.

    They pleaded not guilty.

    Prosecuting Police Inspector Philip Osijiale said the accused committed the offence on April 5 at 1b, Chesachi Hani Okoroafor Close, Lekki Phase I, Lagos.

    He said the first accused, who was recently sacked, unlawfully entered the school premises and assaulted the proprietor, Gloria Obinna. The accused, the proprietor said, also injured two female teachers – Uche Huton and Anita Eguije – on their left hands, abdomen and neck.

    He added that the first accused damaged the front windscreen, two rear lights and side glasses of the school bus, claiming that he was being owed one month salary.

    Magistrate Memunat Folami granted each of the accused N50, 000 bail with two sureties each in the like sum. She adjourned the case till May 16.

  • Unpaid Salary: Osun Speaker defends Aregbesola’s integrity

    Unpaid Salary: Osun Speaker defends Aregbesola’s integrity

    The Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Salam, has defended the integrity of the State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, saying the governor remains a man of strong character, honesty and integrity.

    The Speaker absolved the governor from blame on the financial status of the state, stressing that it was the openness of the governor that exposed the financial predicaments of other states in the country.

    He assured that the 34 billion naira bailout loan obtained by the state from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, would go a long way to address the challenges facing the state and called on the workers to cooperate with the government to move the state forward.

    The Speaker made the remarks in Abuja Tuesday at the opening ceremony of a workshop organised by the Anti-Corruption Academy for members of states Houses of Assembly from the South-West Zone of the country.

    The Speaker who spoke through his Deputy, Hon. Akintunde Adegboye said transparency and honesty go together and this has remained the watchwords of the present political leadership of Osun state.

    He dismissed insinuations that the problem over unpaid salary in the state had to do with corruption, insisting that there was no iota of truth in the allegation.

    The law-maker said the capacity building workshop for legislators was timely as it would update their skill and fine tuned their knowledge on transparency, probity and accountability in governance.

    The Provost of the Anti-Corruption Academy, Professor Sola Akinrinade said the fight against corruption in the country cannot be undertaken by President Muhammadu Buhari alone and called on all law-makers, civil servants, members of the private sector and ordinary Nigerians to join in the crusade against corruption.

    “The agenda for the next three days is sensitization and capacity building to ensure that legislators are aware of the requirements of the law in relation to probity, accountability, integrity and transparency and the need for them to thses values in the performances of their official duties,” he said.

    Professor Akinrinade added that ” the other part of it is the forewarning of what lies ahead for those who choose to pursue the path of perfidy, that there is the long arm of the law waiting to bring to justice all those who are caught perverting the process and helping themselves to unfair proportion of the national cake, especially the portions that do not belong to them.”

  • Lagos doctors seeks lawmakers’ help over unpaid salary

    Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Lagos State has appealed to the House of Assembly to intervene in the refusal of the government to pay the August salary of resident doctors following their  last nationwide strike.

    The NMA made the appeal in a letter to the Assembly, which was read on the floor of the House by the Clerk, Ganiyu Abiru, yesterday.

    The letter urged the lawmakers to call on Governor Babatunde Fashola to pay the doctors’ salary in the interest of peaceful co-existence.

    The NMA had embarked on a national industrial action, which lasted about two months before suspending it in August as a result of popular demand to contain the outbreak of the EVD.

    The letter, by the NMA chairman and the secretary, Babafemi Thomas and Tope Ojo, stated that other unions had embarked on strikes in the past and their salaries were paid.

    The medical body wondered why the government would refuse to pay their entitlement as laid down by law.

    In his comment, the Deputy Chief Whip, Rotimi Abiru, said the issue raised by the NMA was valid, adding that the House should look into it critically.

    Abiru added that the House Committee on Health should be mandated to carry out a thorough investigation.

    The Leader of the House, Ajibayo Adeyeye, said sometime last year, the resident doctors in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) were not paid a month salary, saying the House should urgently look into it to “avert another industrial unrest.”

    He noted that it became more imperative to address the issue since other doctors, including the federal doctors, who also went on the same strike, had been paid their August salary.

    The Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, directed the Committee on Health to investigate and report back in one week.

     

  • Lagos doctors seeks lawmakers’ help over unpaid salary

    Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Lagos State has appealed to the House of Assembly to intervene in the refusal of the government to pay the August salary of resident doctors following their  last nationwide strike.

    The NMA made the appeal in a letter to the Assembly, which was read on the floor of the House by the Clerk, Ganiyu Abiru, yesterday.

    The letter urged the lawmakers to call on Governor Babatunde Fashola to pay the doctors’ salary in the interest of peaceful co-existence.

    The NMA had embarked on a national industrial action, which lasted about two months before suspending it in August as a result of popular demand to contain the outbreak of the EVD.

    The letter, by the NMA chairman and the secretary, Babafemi Thomas and Tope Ojo, stated that other unions had embarked on strikes in the past and their salaries were paid.

    The medical body wondered why the government would refuse to pay their entitlement as laid down by law.

    In his comment, the Deputy Chief Whip, Rotimi Abiru, said the issue raised by the NMA was valid, adding that the House should look into it critically.

    Abiru added that the House Committee on Health should be mandated to carry out a thorough investigation.

    The Leader of the House, Ajibayo Adeyeye, said sometime last year, the resident doctors in Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) were not paid a month salary, saying the House should urgently look into it to “avert another industrial unrest.”

    He noted that it became more imperative to address the issue since other doctors, including the federal doctors, who also went on the same strike, had been paid their August salary.

    The Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, directed the Committee on Health to investigate and report back in one week.

     

  • Keshi’s unpaid salaries NSC queries NFF

    Keshi’s unpaid salaries NSC queries NFF

    The Minister of Sports and Chairman National Sports Commission (NSC) Bolaji Abdullahi has issued the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF ) a query over the seven months unpaid salaries of Super Eagles Coach Stephen Keshi and members of his technical crew.

    The query which was dated 24th October 2013 and signed by the Director General of the NSC Gbenga Elegbeleye want the Football Federation to explain the reasons why the technical crew of the senior national team has not been paid since February.

    The query according to our source at the NFF secretariat in Abuja is to be responded to within 48 hours of receipt.

    It would be recalled that the Big Boss had on Wednesday bemoaned the inability of the Glasshouse to pay his seven months salaries as a low point in his two years sojourn as the Head Coach of the senior national team.

    SportingLife further gathered that the paucity of funds in the Federation necessitated the General Secretary Musa Amadu and the Technical Committee Chairman Chris Green to pay the Minister a visit on Wednesday.