Some varsity teachers are being owed between 15 and 16 months’ salaries, the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), claimed on Sunday.

The union said those mostly affected are lecturers who went on sabbatical. The claim could not be verified last night.

The varsity teachers accused Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) of deliberately frustrating the lecturers to a point of desperation in order to capture them on the controversial Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) of the government.

ASUU’s continued rejection of the payroll system, led to the introduction of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS). It was developed by the university lecturers.

ASUU President Prof Biodun Ogunyemi told The Nation in a chat that the OAGF refusal to pay his colleagues amounted to a violation of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) ASUU signed with the government last December before it called of its nine month strike.

He said: “On the government side they will say they have paid all the arrears but you can’t say you have paid all the arrears when some of our members are still being owed. Where that is happening, we cannot agree that government has paid all the arrears.

“Our members are still being owed. We are still tracking the payment; the have been done in bits but as at today we still have some of our members, pockets of our members on our campuses that are not yet paid.

“In fact some of our members have not been paid their salaries for 15 – 16 months. We have members who have not been paid for fifteen to sixteen months. Some of them who went on sabbatical they don’t pay them and they are pushing them to the point of desperation, as a way of capturing them on IPPIS.

“We see that as a violation of our Memorandum of Action which was signed in December, 2020: that our members will be paid their salaries through hybrid platform until we finalise the integrity test on UTAS.

“What the consultant to IPPIS has been doing is to instigate the Accountant-General’s office to threaten our members that they will not be paid if they don’t register on IPPIS. Those of our members who made inquiries and went as far as Office of the Accountant- General of the Federation they told them point blank that they will not be paid unless they register on IPPIS.

“We are collating information on that and we are prepared to take it to the highest level in the land before we consider what is to be done about what the AGF and the consultant on IPPIS are doing to our members.

“Denying workers their salaries is a punishment and it violates all known trade union laws that we know. If people can be denied their salaries for fifteen to sixteen months because they don’t want to succumb to the pressure (of registering on IPPIS), our union will consider the best way to handle them after taking everything to all the appropriate levels.

“The same thing with the check off deductions. We have seen that the AGF office is withholding the check of deductions of our members. Although we have been advised to compile all of those and send to the appropriate government quarters which we have done the first time but because many were left out we are doing it again.

“We are engaging government agents on all of these and we hope that a stop will be put to this hide and seek game being played by both the Accountant General as well as the consultant to IPPIS.”

Ogunyemi also lamented the slow pace of progress on UTAS by the National Information Technology Development Agency, (NITDA).

The ASUU leader said: “We are also complaining to government on the slow pace of NITDA in finalising the integrity test on UTAS.

“If we had an understanding that the process will be completed as fastly as possible, we suspect that the IPPIS consultants are putting pressure or they are discouraging the finalisation of UTAS so that they can continue to put our members for the platform that we have rejected.”

______________________________________________________________________ “Enhance Legal Practice With Authoritative Reports” — Alexander Payne Offers Comprehensive Law Reports, Spanning Over A Century Of Nigerian Jurisprudence

Interested buyers are encouraged to place their orders and enquiries via: 0704 444 4777, 0704 444 4999, 0818 199 9888 Website: www.alexandernigeria.com

_______________________________________________________________________ [A MUST HAVE] Evidence Act Demystified With Recent And Contemporary Cases And Materials
“Evidence Act: Complete Annotation” by renowned legal experts Sanni & Etti.
Available now for NGN 40,000 at ASC Publications, 10, Boyle Street, Onikan, Lagos. Beside High Court, TBS. Email publications@ayindesanni.com or WhatsApp +2347056667384. Purchase Link: https://paystack.com/buy/evidence-act-complete-annotation _______________________________________________________________________

“Order Justice Omolaye-Ajileye’s Electronic Evidence Books Now” — Essential Guides On Evidence Act, Case Law And Digital Proof

Two leading books on electronic evidence by Hon. Justice Professor Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, Rtd., PhD, FICMC, are now available for purchase. The publications, Electronic Evidence (Second Edition), With The Evidence Act, 2011 and Compendium Of Cases On Electronic Evidence, Volume II, 2020–2025, provide practical guidance, legal analysis and recent judicial authorities on electronic evidence in Nigeria.Order directly from the author here: https://velvety-cendol-7387ed.netlify.app/ _______________________________________________________________________ Groundbreaking Guide For Lawyers: Adigwe Publishes ‘Artificial Intelligence For Lawyers’ With Free Research eBook The book also examines Nigeria's legal ecosystem, focusing on the LPELR and NBA AI Guidelines. As a bonus, every purchase comes with a FREE eBook titled: How to Use the AI Features in LegalPedia and LawPavilion. Ohio Books Ltd praises the publication, stating: "....this is the only Nigerian book I know of on the topic." How to Order: 📞 Call, Text, or WhatsApp: 08034917063 | 07055285878 📧 Email: benadigwe1@gmail.com 🌎 Website: www.benadigwe.com Ebook Version: Access it directly online at https://selar.com/prv626 Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe Esq., ACIarb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director at the Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria. _______________________________________________________________________