The Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday said it lost over 25 members due to hardship as a result of non-payment salaries.
The chapter’s chairperson, Dr. Cyril Oziegbe Onogbosele, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Benin City.

He said for no just cause, many academic staff had been denied payment of salaries for 26 months since January 2022.
“Within the period of focus, from that date to present, we have lost not less than 25 members from our records. This is since 2021. You see, we are in distress, we are in crisis.

“It is even more critical when you are ill and you don’t even have the means, the financial wherewithal to take care of your health. In that case, it has been revealed that there is a connection between non- payment of salaries and death.
“We have the information on our members of what they have been passing through that even getting money to buy drugs, they could not get and in the end, it’s death.

“So, there is a relationship between non regular payment of salaries and death or the state of health of members,” he said.

Onogbosele said the affected staff in the University had been working in pains without pay, adding that they were not tried or found wanting in violation of the university’s laws or rules and regulations to warrant denial of their salaries.

He said slave trade was abolished hundreds of years ago, but the Special Intervention Team (SIT) and the university administration had re-packaged slavery and foisted it on workers of AAU, Ekpoma.