Tension in Ekiti as polytechnic staff protest on highway against Rector

7 years ago

Tension in Ekiti as polytechnic staff protest on highway against Rector

Tension rose at the Federal Polytechnic, Ado Ekiti, as workers protest on federal highway against their Rector, Dr. Taiwo Akande over alleged fraudulent practices and non-payment of some allowances.

The workers, who had been on strike since October 10, 2016 over lingering crises bordering on alleged financial profligacy leveled against the management disrupted vehicular movement along Ado-Ijan-Ikare road for several hours.

The workers were led by Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Mr. Tunji Owoeye and his counterpart in the Senior Staff Association Nigeria Polytechnics(SSANIP), Dr Oluwole Ayeni, where they held prayers on the road for several hours, leading to long queues of vehicles along that route.

The workers, who brandished leaves and rained curses on the management for threatening to invoke no-work-no-pay rule to coerce them to resume work, also disrupted a seminar for Agric services providers organized by amphi-tractor academy in the institution.

But the Rector, who described the allegations against her as frivolous, said she has not breached any law to warrant resignation, adding that she stopped payment of CONTISS 15 and 50 % cooperative deduction , because they have no financial backing to implement such.

Addressing journalists during the protest, the ASUP and SSANIP Chairmen, said they have written to President Muhammadu Buhari and other top government functionaries, as well as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate the fraud allegations leveled against Dr. Akande.

“The Rector and his management team have been employing people on CONTISS 8 and paying them with CONTISS 7. Some were also employed as Principal Lecturers and were being paid as Lecturer 3. The Rector and her team also padded the 2016 budget and we had provided evidence in this regard. Our N131 million is still trapped in the cooperatives.

“We want the FG to set up investigative panel on all these allegations and when they come, all those concerned must step aside in the interest of fairness. Rather than fighting corruption, corruption is fighting us in this polytechnic.

“This Polytechnic is broke and if a business is liquidated, the CEO must resign. Our management must be relinquished of their positions.

“We have been on this for long. We have so many demands that are yet to be met, but the greatest demand we have now is for the FG to sack the Rector .

“If she is sacked, we are ready to sit down with whoever appointed to address all these matters, failure to do this, we will collapse the entire system and we will remain like this”, they said.

But the Rector said: “They only wanted me out for selfish desires. I didn’t employ any member of my family as alleged . I had always deferred to all the unions in taking critical decisions. In fact, I regret starting CONTISS 15 for 14 months here even when government has not approved money for it.

“I have the highest records of workers’ promotion in history and I all the budgetary provisions to us like the capital, personnel and overhead costs are fixed and cannot be padded by anybody, so the allegation of budget padding is ridiculous and sad. No Rector can pad the budget of any polytechnic.

“Some people are after me and they want me out at all costs. I won’t resign based on threat from workers. If Mr President said I should leave today, then I will bow out,” she said.