The University of Jos chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Friday directed its members to stay at home indefinitely, pending the payment of withheld salaries by the federal government.
This was revealed in a press statement signed by the branch chairperson, Associate Professor Lazarus Maigoro.
It would be recalled that members of ASUU were paid half salaries for October, 2022, while 7 months salaries of March to September were not paid.
The statement reads in part, “One of the issues agreed at the meeting was that 50% of the backlog of eight months arrears of our withheld salaries will be paid to our members immediately but as at 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 Gencral 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 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.
“In view of the bottleneck placed by Ngige towards paying our members the backlog of our salaries, the congress of ASUU, University of Jos met today, 4th November 2022, and resolved to stay at home, though not on strike, until the backlog of our salaries are paid”.
