Aggrieved AAU Teachers Drag School to Court Over Non-payment of 27 Months Salaries

 

Hendrix Oliomogbe 

Peeved by the non-payment of salaries for over two years, three lecturers at Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma: Prof. Fredrick Ikechukwu Esumeh, Prof. Monday Lewis Igbafen and Dr. Zebedee Udo Mamudu of the Departments of Microbiology, Philosophy and Economics respectively, have dragged the school to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in the Benin Judicial Division.

In two separate suit Nos: NICN/BEN/15/2024; NICN/BEN/16/2024; and NICN/BEN/17/2024 by their counsel, Mr. Kingsley Obamogie (SAN), the claimants (Esumeh, Igbafen and Mamudu) are seeking amongst others, a declaration that the failure and/or neglect of the defendant (AAU) to pay the claimant’s salaries and allowances since the 1st of January, 2022 till date is wrongful, inhuman and a breach of the subsisting contract of service between the parties.

Besides, the claimants are also praying the court to grant an order directing the defendant to restore payment of their salaries and to pay all their outstanding salaries and allowances from the 1st day of January, 2022 till date of judgment in their respective lawsuits.

In their separate suits, the lecturers are demanding for the payment of the sum of N10 million general damages for the grave pain, inconvenience and hardship suffered by them as a result of the refusal and/or failure of the state owned tertiary institution to discharge its contractual duty to the claimant.

No date has been fixed for hearing of the suits pending before Justice A.A. Adewemimo of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria.

The local chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had recently alleged that the salaries of no fewer than 350 staff of the university have been stopped for well over two years, reportedly on the arbitrary order or directive of the school’s Special Intervention Team (SIT) without any form of query or existing disciplinary action.

 The union also charged that over 25 teachers of the school have died of sudden death syndrome due to their inability to meet basic health care following the non-payment of their salaries and other allowances.