The Governing Council of Ekiti State University, EKSU, Ado Ekiti has announced the immediate proscription of all the four workers unions in the university,
The proscribed unions are Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) and Non-Academic Union of Allied and Education Institutions (NASU).
Also, the university has been closed and all academic activities are hereby suspended.
A statement on Friday, by Bode Olofinmuagun, Head, Directorate of Information and Corporate Affairs of EKSU said proscription of the unions and closure of the university was “as a result of the continuous disruption of lawful activities on campus which have endangered lives and property in the last one week.”
It should be recalled that during the first tenure of Dr Kayode Fayemi as governor of Ekiti State, Students Union Government was also proscribed in EKSU.
The statement read; “The Governing Council of Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti announces the immediate closure of the University.
All academic activities are hereby suspended.
“This is as a result of the continuous disruption of lawful activities on campus which have endangered lives and property in the last one week.
“Consequently, to guarantee peace and orderliness on campus, all the four unions ( ASUU, SSANU, NAAT and NASU) are hereby proscribed with immediate effect.
“All students are advised to vacate the campus forthwith.”
It should be recalled that since Monday, EKSU workers, especially senior staff and lecturers had occupied the campus to press home their pending demands from the state government and the university management.
The protesters occupied the university causing a standstill of traffic and activities on campus for over two hours.
They were singing solidarity songs and vowed to increase the intensity of the protest day by day.
The unions are aggrieved that the state government has not met their demands for payment of three months’ salary arrears dated 2018, six years of earned academic allowances and unremitted cooperative deductions among other demands.
The Chairman of ASUU, EKSU Chapter, Mr. Kayode Arogundade accused the State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi of shunning several appeals from the union and other intermediaries.
“As of today, Ekiti State Government is only subventing EKSU by 50 percent of its monthly wage bills, without paying any considerable attention to capital grants and infrastructural developments,” he said.
“This has led EKSU Administration to ingloriously indulge in financial infractions, such as Subversion of Tax Deductions to paying salaries; Diversion of Pension deductions to paying salaries and Fund diversion from units of the University.
“This is just the beginning; we are going to do this until we occupy the government house. After all, we are asking for our rights. If we go on strike the children of ordinary Nigerians will be home, the VC and Chairman of Council will be at home spending our money, the governor will be at home spending our resources.
“Before we go on strike, we will make this state ungovernable for them, we’ll make this school ungovernable for them.”
The unions vowed to go beyond the usual strike action this time as they have threatened to make the university and state ungovernable until their requests are granted.
But the state government has blamed the situation on over-bloated recruitment done by the immediate past administration and the inability of EKSU to meet its own portion of subvention.
Special Adviser to Governor Kayode Fayemi on Tertiary Education, Sikiru Eniola, pleaded with the protesters to embrace dialogue and also find alternative funding channels in the face of dwindling revenue.
Some workers of the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti converged at the school to protest the non-payment of their salaries on April 19, 2021.