Lecturers under the employment of the Osun State Government, Monday, stormed the Osun State House of Assembly, protesting the nonpayment of their salaries for the past eight months.
The lecturers, under the aegis of Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State Owned Tertiary Institutions, CASUOSTI, had been on strike for the past three months.
Led by leaders of the body including Chairman, Lasisi Jimoh; Secretary, Olusegun Lana and Public Relations Officer, Dotun Omisore, they stormed the Assembly armed with placards with various inscriptions and were chanting, ‘Save our Souls’, ‘Enough is Enough’, ‘Pay our Salaries’ and ‘We Reject Half Salaries.’
The protesting lecturers, who rejected the plan of the state government to pay them half salaries, vowed not to submit themselves to fresh screening directed by the government.
According to them, the plan of the state government to pay workers half salaries was shocking because the state had received its share of the bailout fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Chief Whip of the House of Assembly, Mr. Folorunsho Bamisayemi, appealed to them to exercise patience, saying efforts were underway to ensure their demands were met.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Najeem Salam, however walked out on the protesting lecturers after spending some minutes with them.
The Secretary of the council, Olusegun Lana, who spoke with newsmen, said the lecturers have been on strike for the past several months without government seeking to negotiate with them.
Lana said: “We came to the House of Assembly to submit Save Our Souls letter. The protest went well until the Speaker walked out on us.
“The state government has not been remitting pension deductions from our salaries to our Pension Fund Administrators, this is against the law. The deductions are supposed to be remitted seven days after salaries are paid but this is not happening.”
The CASUOSTI scribe also disclosed that the institutions were understaffed and the few lecturers were overburdened despite not being paid for many months.
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