Withheld salaries: UNIJOS ASUU issues stay-at-home order to members

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, University of Jos chapter, on Friday ordered its members to stay at home indefinitely, pending the payment of withheld salaries by the Federal Government.

The ASUU branch made this known in a statement made available to Saturday PUNCH and signed by the branch chairperson, Prof Lazarus Maigoro.

The PUNCH had on Thursday reported exclusively how the government had paid half salaries to the striking university lecturers.

The statement partly reads, “One of the issues agreed at the meeting was that 50 per cent of the backlog of eight months arrears of our withheld salaries would be paid to our members immediately but as of the time of writing this press release, only 17 days prorated October salary was paid to our members by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation.

“Having stayed for about nine months running now, our members in the University of Jos considered this an insult to them by the Accountant Gereral of the Federation.

“Is the Accountant General of the Federation actually answerable to the Minister of Labour? So, if today the Minister of Agriculture directs the Accountant General of the Federation to withhold the salaries of the staff of the Agricultural Research Institutes who have been on strike for over a year, will he obey that?

“We wonder why Ngige is keen about withholding the salaries of ASUU members because members of staff of some Agricultural Research Institutes have been on strike for almost a year but they have been receiving their salaries regularly. Is this policy only for ASUU members?

“We are also aware that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, wrote a memo to the Accountant General asking him to pay our members only from the day we suspended the strike.’’ Punch