All academic activities at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, have come to a halt as the indefinite strike embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities in the institution takes full effect.
Reports from the University indicated that both staff and students have deserted the university campus as a result of the strike.
The union, through its chairman, Dr. Monday Igbafen, pegged the reason for the indefinite strike on “the vexatious habitual non-payment of salaries and non-remittance of check-off dues and other sundry deductions in the university.”
He said the current strike is a climax of the failure of the university administration and the Edo State Government to meaningfully and satisfactorily address the union’s demand for payment of unpaid four months salaries and one-year unremitted check-off dues and other sundry deductions, which the union claimed ran into billions of naira.
Dr. Igbafen reaffirmed the union’s resolve yesterday at Ekpoma to sustain the strike till the demand of the union is met.
Meanwhile, the other three staff unions in the University, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU) had been on strike since October last year for the same reason of non-payment of salaries, check-off dues, and other sundry deductions, resulting in a total collapse of administrative activities in the university since October 2020.
Rising from their weekly joint congress meeting yesterday at Ekpoma, the University’s Joint Action Committee (JAC) of SSANU, NAAT, and NASU resolved to sustain the strike till their demands for payment of unpaid salaries, check-off dues, and other deductions are met.
The JAC of SSANU, NAAT, and NASU dismissed the threat by the University Administration to implement the policy of No Work, No Pay.
