The management of Ambrose Ali University in Ekpoma, Edo State, has denied owing staff workers 32 months’ wages.
Prof. Asomwan Adagbonyin, the Institution’s Acting Vice Chancellor, revealed this on Tuesday, calling the assertion as a mischievous, planned attempt to turn the truth upside down and elicit emotional responses.
The Vice-Chancellor stated that on Tuesday, 1710 staff members from the institution, including academic, senior non-teaching, and junior personnel, got their August pay, as well as 634 University pensioners.
He stated, “I welcome you to this briefing, which tries to clarify one of the topics facing this University (AAU) that has recently dominated the media landscape.
“You are aware of a popular video in which some people claimed that University workers were owed several months’ salary, the most being 32 months.
“The sweeping generalisations made by the speakers in that video demonstrated clear mischief and a desire to turn truth on its head, incite emotion, and cast the University in a shadow of wickedness, lack of empathy, brutality, and incapacity.”
“This University (AAU) does not owe any individual or group of employees 32 months’ pay. Any argument that anyone is entitled 32 months’ salaries is not only false but also dishonest, given that AAU academic staff participated in the 8-month national strike and the no-work-pay rule was implemented.
Prof. Adagbonyin, who stated that anyone not on the institution’s payroll cannot claim to be its personnel, as indicated in the viral video, underlined that AAU has never demonstrated a lack of capacity to pay salaries to its employees.
He also stated that the University has met its salary obligations to its employees by implementing a “Pay Day” on the 27th of each month.
Adagbonyin explained that AAU 2021 conducted a biometric/staff verification exercise in which many of its staff were found to have falsified their ages and official records and added that in fear of being caught, they abandoned the exercise altogether.
He informed us that those who refused to participate in the staff biometric exercise or failed to complete the process have had their names taken off the payroll, and he said that the same applies to those who are facing disciplinary issues.
He added, “One of the complainants in the trending video is known to have begun his biometric verification but did not complete it.
“Rather than redeem himself through the several opportunities available to him, he abandoned the exercise altogether and has continued to launch campaigns of calumny against the university,” he said.
He advised members of staff to submit themselves to the biometric exercise, warning that AAU would not be intimidated or distracted by anyone.