Some lecturers in the Wesley University, Ondo, Ondo State have threatened to sue the institution over the alleged inability of the latter to pay their salaries for over 12 months
According to some of the aggrieved lecturers, the institution owed some of them 10 months salaries, some 13 while some were owed as much as 17 months salaries.
They lamented that nothing was being done by the management of the institution to pay the salary arrears.
DAILY POST authoritatively gathered that some of the lecturers of the institution had been suspended by the authorities of the varsity.
This was due to the refusal of the embattled workers to sign bond issued to them by the institution to regulate their work schedule with the school.
A source among the suspended lecturers said they were asked to sign the bond because they wanted to go for postgraduate programmes but they refused because it was not in their appointment letters.
Another lecturers, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that the institution was not operating in line with the regulations and guidelines of the National Universities Commission.
He said ” We have not been paid for over 10 months and we still come to work and do our work dutifully, still they are not satisfied; there are lot of issues that are affecting lecturers in that school. There are some departments in that school that are not qualified to be a department yet NUC came and gave them accreditation. It is wrong.
“We are taking step to report the matter to the NUC because the school is substandard. If a university can’t pay salaries for many months, that university should be closed down.
“The school has been rated as number one substandard university in Nigeria, yet NUC still allows it to operate. A department is meant to have a number of professors and senior lecturers but in Wesley those ones are lacking. We also lack equipment. Some of our departments are not qualified to be department.
“In Wesley, lecturers are not given specific course to teach, I can tell you that assistant lecturers are taking up to five courses to teach which is abnormal and against the NUC code of operation of universities.”
However, in his reaction, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Samuel Akindele confirmed the suspension of some of the academic staff but noted that the suspension only affected lecturers that refused to sign the bond.
Akindele explained that the school sent a circular round that any academic staff who wanted to go outside for post graduate programme should sign the bond with the university to regulate their work schedule with the school.
On the issue of salaries, Akindele said some of the staff had collected their salaries upfront.
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