…Say 12 Colleagues have Died
By Ikeugonna Eleke
About 1,000 staff members of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, have protested non-payment of salaries after five years of employment.
The protesting staff said a total of 12 of their colleagues who were employed at the same period had died while waiting to be paid their emoluments.
Wielding placards with inscriptions to tell their stories, the lecturers appealed for payment of their salaries, saying that the current economic hardship in the country was even more on them and their families.
One of the affected staff members, Mr Ibezim Echezona, cried that 12 of their members affected by the non-payment of salaries had died waiting for the money to be paid.
‘Our members are dying and we have buried 12 members so far. The last one was this year and this is someone that we saw last December and today she is no more and that is to tell you what we are going through due to non-payment of our salaries for five to six years now.
‘This problem is in the hands of the university because the IPPIS is no more. We demand explanation, they should tell us if it is Abuja or the school management that is holding our salaries.’
Another staff member who works at the Centre for Disabilities and Special Needs Research, Mr Chukwuebuka Emmanuel, said since his employment in 2019, he had not received any remuneration, yet he had been delivering services.
Emmanuel, a blind staff member, said: ‘We were employed since 2019 and till date we have not received any salary and initially we were told that the problem was with the Integrated Payment and Personnel Information System IPPIS. Later the then Governing Council came on board and approved our payments and capturing, yet nothing came out of it.
‘This has been affecting us generally not to talk of persons with disabilities and it has not been easy as a family man taking care of his wife and children.
‘If I remove my spectacle you can see that I am crying and we are owing our landlords and there is a limit to which the landlords can assist you and what do I tell my children when they demand for school fees and other needs?
‘We do not know those that are holding our salaries. We do not know if it is the Federal Government or the Ministry of Education or the University,’ he lamented.
