Rumbles, Confusion In AAU Ekpoma As News Of Mass Sack Engulfs University Community …Students Groan Over Electricity, Water Supply Failure On Campus

EDO State owned Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma is on the news again as once again, the crisis rocking the university community has deepened with news filtering in that the Executive Governor of Edo State and Visitor to the University, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has allegedly directed immediate sack of unspecified number of workers of the University over the recently conducted inconclusive staff biometrics verification exercise in the University.

The affected workers in the alleged gale of sack, according to the report, include the staff allegedly accused of disobedience and refusal to participate in the biometrics verification exercise, the staff who participated in the exercise but denied printout and the workers who participated in the recently suspended strike of ASUU, NASU, SSANU among others in the university.

The Special Intervention Team (SIT) of the University which disclosed this at a meeting of the SIT/Principal Officers of the University and all staff of the University on the state of affairs of the University on Thursday, 12th January, 2023 at Ekpoma was said to have announced that all the workers in this category are no longer staff of the University

It was gathered that Mr. Austin Osakue, a member of the SIT, who presided over the alleged rowdy and tension-soaked meeting, revealed that the SIT has directed the issuance of sack letters to the affected staff.

He was said to have specifically disclosed that all staff with alleged multiple ages or conflicting affidavits of age declaration will be sent to the University’s Staff Disciplinary Committee without further delay.

Mr. Osakue who was said to have read the riot act to all staff of the university also threatened tough measures in the coming weeks in the university, just as he was also said to have insisted that the meeting was not convened to “massage the ego of anybody”.

Mr. Osakue, it was alleged, vowed that certain category of staff whom he described as “agents of darkness” would be sent parking from the university in the coming weeks, even as he was also alleged to have hinted that the State Government has no intension to review upward the present paltry 41 million Naira monthly subvention to the university and disclosed the SIT’s plan to hike school fees payable by students in the university to enable the university run without government monthly subvention.

According to him, “The university’s College of Medicine and Faculty of Law have been identified by SIT as “centres of excellence” where students would pay school fees of more than N2 million per academic session with effect from next academic session.

Our correspondent further gathered that workers who attended the meeting expressed shock over the attitude, character and behaviour of Mr. Osakue who was said to have stood in for the Chairman of SIT at the meeting, describing it as a flagrant display of ignorance, coarseness, tyranny, oppression and suppression.

Reports also have it that many staff were not allowed to air their views on the critical issues or make suggestions on how to resolve the problems, rather, Mr. Osakue allegedly embarked on bullying, intimidation and humiliation of staff, including professors that attended the meeting, adding that the meeting ended abruptly and in a fiasco as a result of workers’ reaction to the outburst of Mr. Osakue.

The workers who described Mr. Osakue’s claims that SIT was on top of the problem of unpaid salaries in the university as a hoax, also alleged that the vast majority of workers have not been paid salaries for several months.

Our correspondent reports that no fewer than 350 staff of the university have had their salaries stopped on the arbitrary order or directive of the university’s SIT without any form of query or existing disciplinary action against the affected staff.

It was also discovered that no specific reason or explanation has been offered to the affected individual staff for the sudden stoppage of their salaries since January, 2022 and till date, this category of staff are being owed 12 months salaries.

It was revealed that during the meeting, SIT did not sympathize with workers denied salaries by the university Administration for twelve calendar months or showed any commitment towards resolving the matter justly and amicably.

Rather, Mr. Osakue was said to have stated that the state government has terminated the appointments of staff who participated in the recently suspended university unions strike and/or biometrics verification exercise issues.

He allegedly described the issues of unpaid salaries and biometrics verification exercise as “no go areas” at the meeting, against the expectation of workers that the meeting was designed to resolve the myriad problems and issues bedeviling the smooth administration, industrial harmony and progress of the University.

The Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, which is one of the first state universities in Nigeria, has been drowning in avoidable crises allegedly caused by the attitude, policies and actions of the same authorities saddled with the responsibility of managing the university, to make it an exemplary citadel of learning, in tune with the visions of the founding fathers.

In addition to the visible aberration in the administrative structure of the university, causing the institution to take the form of a rudderless ship, the deliberate refusal and failure of the University Administration to pay the salaries of the vast majority of staff of the University for twelve calendar months, ranging from January 2022 to December 2022, for no justifiable reasons has provoked uneasiness in the university.

Also, the university administration’s indebtedness of unremitted check-off dues and sundry deductions to the various staff unions and workers’ cooperative bodies in the university has continued to run into millions of Naira.

Our investigation also revea that the pain, anger, hunger and demoralization of workers and the administrative profligacy in the university have placed it on the precipice of total collapse.

Many stakeholders and concerned persons have expressed fear that if the university is allowed to remain in the hands of the SIT, it will soon metamorphose to a glorified high school.

In another development, as it affects the students, three weeks into resumption for the second semester 2021/2022 academic session, students who resumed have been facing serious hardship with the neither the university administration not the SIT finding solution to the perennial darkness those occupying the halls of residence have been thrown in.

Some students who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity confirm that they have had to grapple with the challenge of electricity and water supply which began last semester, since after the school pulled out of the ASUU national strike and called students back to school to conclude the first semester which ended in December 2022.

According to the students, the development became worse last semester which lasted from August to December, but the general impression was that the university authority intended to use that as a means to force students out of the hostels, having via a circular mandated them to vacate the halls of residence, adding that it is surprising that now, three weeks into resumption for a new semester, students still have to grapple with the same electricity issue, both in the hostels and the various faculties with various faculty heads and officials running generators to sustain their offices.

They called on the SIT to apply the same dexterity they are putting up in bringing the hammer on the staff to ameliorating the plight of the students and make the university habitable for them.