UPDATED: Protesting workers lock out VC, students as LASU resumes
Grace Edema
The four staff unions at Lagos State University, Ojo, on Monday, locked out the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olanrewaju Fagboun and students as the institution resumed after the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The unions involved in the protest are the Academic Staff Union of Universities, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union, and the National Association of Academic Technologists.
As of 7:00 a.m., members of the unions stood at the gate and prevented other members of staff from gaining entry into the campus.
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They were protesting non-payment of the salary increment promised them by the Lagos State Government over a year ago.
They claimed that other Lagos State workers had received the increment but all the tertiary institutions in Lagos State were yet to be included.
Fagboun attempted to appeal to the unions but failed as they didn’t oblige him.
The PUNCH gathered that the protest by the unions is holding across tertiary institutions in Lagos State.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had asked final-year students of Lagos tertiary institutions to resume today, September 14, 2020.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Government has called on the management of LASU, Ojo to pay up its workers from its N450,000,000 monthly subvention.
Special Adviser on Education to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Tokunbo Wahab, said this in a statement.
He said, “We wish to state categorically that Lagos State University, like other subvented MDAs, collects the sum of N450,000,000.00 every month from the Lagos State Government as Subvention.
“The Government expects the institutions to also be responsible in the application of the funds and the staffing of the institutions. We must also have at the back of our mind that they have IGR which they generate and not accountable to the government on how the same is expended.
“We expect that the management of these institutions pay up their staff salaries to avoid situations that look more like deliberate sabotaging of the efforts of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led administration as we prepare for schools resumption this week,” he said.