Afrigather 
File copy: Rufus Giwa Polytechnic
The Governing Council of Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, has denied the allegation by the employees of the establishment that the federal government owed them 10 months’ salaries and allowances.
The council described the allegation as false, saying the current administration didn’t owe the employees any backlog of wage.
It stated the purported debt was inherited from the previous administration and the present administration had paid three out of the 13 months of the backlog.
Members of workers of the establishment had staged a protest accusing the federal government of not paying their salaries and allowances working for 10 months.
However the Chairman of the establishment’s Governing Council, Dr Olubunmi Omoniyi, talking on the matter in Akure, on Monday refuted the allegation, explaining that the council met 13 months of unpaid wage of the employees, however the council needed to foyer to make sure three out of the 13 months owed have been paid, lowering the backlog to 10 months.
In line with the chairman, the workers of the establishment are at the moment being paid as and when due whereas the council are nonetheless on efforts to clear the backlog.
She nonetheless famous that some components within the college have been irritating all strikes proposed to the establishment to be producing funds internally.
She defined, “As I’m speaking with you, RUGIPO employees obtain their salaries as and when due. When the union met with me in November, I advised them that I had been capable of go round lobbying for 3 months’ salaries to be paid out of the backlog. I made them realise that the current authorities is just not owing them.
“These salaries owed collected since 2014 below the earlier administration. There was a time after they (the earlier administration/governing council) additionally borrowed hundreds of thousands to pay salaries on the polytechnic, which different establishments within the state didn’t borrow from the financial institution. All these items have generated a number of unrest within the establishment.
“Different establishments after they get their subvention, increase with their IGR however for this very establishment (RUGIPO), we don’t have IGR and the way in which of producing IGR is just not forthcoming from any of them. On the assembly with members of the council, they requested how we’re going to get 10-month salaries paid, I advised them we’d beg the federal government to pay as a result of presently they’ve exhausted their subvention (for 2023).
“As a substitute of 12 months, they’ve obtained 14 months of subvention and we have been knowledgeable that they can not get extra ones. I stated we’d beg in order that the federal government can help us in defraying this debt and that’s the scenario on the bottom.
To my dismay, I heard they went on the rampage with NASU chanting my title and that I used to be sitting on their cash. I don’t understand how a council chairman will sit on salaries to not be paid.
“As I’m talking with you, I don’t have any document of accounts of the establishment or any member of my council don’t know something about their account information. Other than our sitting allowance which had been budgeted for. We’ve got by no means collected a dime from any quarter on the establishment. All efforts to get the polytechnic to generate IGR are being annoyed (by the system.)”
Through the protest final Wednesday, the offended employees, below the auspices of the Non-Educational Workers Union of Instructional and Related Establishments and the Senior Workers Affiliation of Nigeria Polytechnics, RUGIPO chapters blocked the primary gate of the establishment, urged the federal government to accede to their calls for.
The chief of the protesters, Nafiu Okoro, stated, “All non-teaching workers comprising of NASU and SSANIP agreed that authorities ought to pay all our excellent salaries working to over 10 months. The N35,000 wage being paid to employees as palliatives in Ondo State must also be prolonged to the establishment.”
