The various unions at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti on Monday protested against the non-payment of their salaries and entitlements by the institution’s authorities.
FUOYE is located in Oye-Ekiti, the headquarters of Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti.
The development stalled both academic and non-academic activities, including the ongoing orientation that was organized for the newly admitted students into the university.
Parents, who brought their newly admitted children, were disappointed when they met the main entrance of the institution under lock-and-key.
The protest, led by the leadership of both the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University and Non-Academic Staff Union, FUOYE chapter, started at about 7am from the main gate of the university.
The protesting staff shut the main gate of the university and prevented their colleagues, both academic and non-academic, from entering into the campus for several hours.
The protest later spread to the town, where the union members carrying various placards chanted various songs against the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, and threatened to make the university ungovernable, if their demands were not met in record time.
Some academic staff, who forced their ways into the institution, were alleged to have been harassed by the protesting workers, describing them as betrayers.
Some of their allegations include: the non-promotion of staff as and at when due, improper placement of staff in their areas of specialization, illegal ICT deduction and perpetration of irregular employment.
Others are: non-remittance of unions’ check-off dues, withholding of hazard allowance, arbitrary award of contracts and victimisation of staff.
The Chairmen of SSANU and NASU respectively, Ademola Mutiu and Adebayo Dada, alleged that the V-C and his management team spent N2 million to celebrate the Christmas and the New Year festivities, when two months salaries were being owed.
Mutiu said: “It was bad that an institution that claimed not to have money had to secretly employed about 500 workers and used the lean internally revenue to pay them.
“We held two meetings with the management in November that the Internally Generated Revenue should be used to pay some of our allowances, but they refused to listen to us.
“Before last year ended, two months salaries were owed and despite this, the members of the management took N2 million each for the festivities, this was the highest point of wickedness and insensitivity.”
His counterpart in NASU, Adebayo Dada, alleged that the university was currently the most expensive federal university in the country.
Dada also alleged that the institution currently charged a tuition fee of N132, 000 making it the most expensive university in Nigeria.
He queried why the institution was still ranting over paucity of funds, while also charging this outrageous amount.
Dada said: “Can you imagine that today, FUOYE is also charging N50, 000 per bed space in its hostels and there are about six students in a room.
“We, therefore, see no reason why this institution always complain about lack of fund to pay our allowances.
“All these must stop and we are warning that we are not going to resume work until all our entitlements are paid and other demands are met.”
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Kayode Soremekun, denied all the allegations, but appealed to the aggrieved workers to give him more time to address the genuine complaints.
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