Benue University ASUU Officials Assault Channels TV Crew

Officials of the Academic Staff Union of University, Benue State University Chapter, led by the Legal Adviser and the unions’ Secretary on Friday threatened Channels Television crew of the university campus, while trying to get the views of the union in the two months ongoing strike action.

The legal Adviser who physically manhandled the Channels Television Cameraman and his equipment, threaten to break the Camera, despite explanation that ASUU needed to state its side of the story, following Thursdays’ meeting between students of the institution and Governor Samuel Ortom to find a solution to the industrial action.

At the meeting, Governor Ortom explained that, the government has paid ASUU salaries, including earned allowances up to date, except the six years arrears from 2009-2015, which was inherited by his administration, while offering to pay the outstanding in installment.

The N570 Million I pay every month, is including academic earned allowance and the government is not owing ASUU One Naira, from what we agreed”.

“Meanwhile other people are still languishing, including me as governor with members of my Executive council with House of Assembly, we are down by six months, nobody has collected, the other categories of civil servants, they are down by six months.

“ Some of you, your fathers are working with the civil servant, go and check, the ademic earned allowance which had incurred before I came in as governor was the sum of N3 Billion”.

” We said ok, let us pay in arrears by paying academic earned allowance along with the monthly salary while we work on paying the accumulated allowance since 2009″.
“If ASUU stays on strike for long, they won’t be affected, whenever they resume, they will still claim their entitlement, but we the students are aging and we have a time limit for education”.

“When the time elapse and we do not acquire the education we are clamouring for, we become nuisance to the society”.

The governor also expressed his displeasure with the impossible attitude of ASUU, with disregard for constituted authority.

“It is quite a difficult thing, but yet we have humbled ourselves, we have brought ourselves down, because you stoop to conquer, when we seat with them, they don’t talk to me as governor or with the SSG as somebody in position of authority, they say all kind of things but we absorb it because we want peace to prevail and we don’t want our children out of school”.

Last week, I paid ASUU two months, April and May salary, because of various appeals and my desire for the reopening of the school but they have refused to resume after receiving that money”.

The attack and confrontation by ASUU officials confirms the reason for the prolonged strike leaving students stagnate while the institution remains empty.

Source ChannelsTv