Private university staff calls for payment of outstanding salaries

Eighty-nine former staff of Wesley University, Ondo, Ondo State, have demanded the payment of their outstanding salaries and entitlements owed between 2014 and 2019.

They said failure to do so would compel them to resort to legal action.

The aggrieved former staff of the University made the demand at a News Conference held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Thursday.

The former staff of the University, comprising the academic, administrative and professional staff, lamented that the University had predicted its failure to pay their entitlements since 2014 upon the challenges posed by the Covid-19 lockdown.

Speaking through their lawyer, Mr Femi Aborisade, the affected former staff disclosed that they were forced to bring the matter ‘before the court of the public’ because the University had repeatedly failed to pay the money.

Aborisade said; “The gravamen of the case of our clients is that whereas Wesley University, Ondo, WUO, employed them individually at various times and they worked for WUO conscientiously with utmost performance throughout the period of their employment, the University has refused to pay their earned entitlements.”

He asserted that the affected workers were disengaged contrary to the contracts of their employment and in spite of the interventions of several bodies, particularly the National Universities Commission, NUC.

The lawyer noted, “In its letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University dated July 19, 2018, the NUC was compelled, by its findings, to threaten the constitution of a visitation panel to determine the viability of the University on the ground of lingering issue of non-payment of salaries.”

A former acting Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Olu-Aderounmu Williams, said, “there is no university in the country today that is owing as much as Wesley University, Ondo, owes currently. We hope that the University is not thinking that by the time those being owed drop dead one by one there would be no one to agitate again.”

The former Dean, College of Social and Management Science, Professor Adebowale Abiodun, who put the total amount owed the staff at N151, 271, 925.31, said;“We were paid one salary per quarter as staff of the University while working.”

“The 88 former staff represent about 3/4 of all the former staff being owed, including the pioneer VC, former acting VC and second Bursar. That the salaries owed covered 2014 to 2020, that the excuse of Coronavirus pandemic is not tenable and that the number of months owed the staff is between five and 29 months,” he submitted.

However, as at the time of filing this report, efforts to get a reaction from the School Management on the issue proved abortive. Calls made to the Registrar of the University, Mrs Chioma Obasi, were not answered and text messages sent to her telephone line were not replied.  (VON)