Osun lecturers protest at Assembly over unpaid salaries

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Lecturers  under the aegis of Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State Owned Tertiary Institutions stormed the Osun State House of Assembly to protest nonpayment of their salaries for the past eight months.

The lecturers, who had been on strike for the past three months were led by leaders of the body including Chairman, Lasisi Jimoh; Secretary Olusegun Lana and Public Relations Officer, Dotun Omisore.

The lecturers, who were armed with placards with various  inscriptions in lauding  ‘Save our Souls’, ‘Enough is Enough’, ‘Pay our Salaries’ and ‘We Reject Half Salaries’,  sang anti-government songs.

They also  rejected the plan  of the state government to pay  half salaries while saying they would not submit themselves to fresh screening directed by the government.

The irate lecturers said the plan of the state government to pay workers half salaries was shocking because the state had received its share of the bailout fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The letter  was signed by the CASUOSTI Chairman, Lasisi Jimoh; secerayry, Olusegun Lana; Chairman Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic, Iree, Dotun Omisore; ASUP chairman, Esa Oke, Adesola Akande;  COEASU Ila-Orangun Chairman, Segun Onifade and COEASU Ilesa Chairman, Oladele Ojo.

The Chief Whip of the House of Assembly, Mr. Folorunsho Bamisayemi, while addressing the protesters  appealed to them to exercise patience, saying efforts were underway to ensure their demands were met.

However, the Speaker, Mr. Najeem Salam, after after spending some minutes with the protesters walked out on them.

The Secretary of the council, who spoke with our correspondent, said lecturers had been on strike for the past months without government seeking to negotiate with them.

Lana said, “We came to the House of Assembly to submit Save Our Souls letter. The protest went well until the Speaker walked out on us.

” The state government has not been remitting pension deductions from our salaries to our Pension Fund Administrators, this is against the law. The deductions are supposed to be remitted seven days after salaries are paid but this is not happening.”

Lana also stated that the institutions were understaffed and the few lecturers were overburdened despite not being paid for many months.

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