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| Photo: EbiraReporters |
Students of Kogi State
University, Thursday morning, shut down the state capital, Lokoja, leaving many
travelers stranded, in protest of the prolonged closure of their school.
Media
report continues:
Kogi
is a major transit point that links the northern and southern parts of Nigeria.
Lecturers
in the school went on strike three months ago to protest against the
non-payment of their salaries.
Government
officials admit the lecturers are owed salaries, but say the debt piled up
during the administration of the former governor, Idris Wada.
“Out
of that five, we have paid four,” an official said.
The
lecturers’ union is not impressed, however.
“The
(strike) action will be sustained till the last kobo owed is paid,” Chairman of
the school’s Academic Staff Union, Daniel Aina, said on Monday.
The
lecturers also want the government to undertake to pay salaries of each month
before the seventh day of a new month.
The
government argues that such guarantees are risky because its revenue is predicated
on a dwindling handout from the Federal Government.
The
lecturers also want a seven-month tax rebate agreement it reached with the
previous governor implemented.
Both the government and the lecturers are yet to reach a truce and the students complain they are made to pay heavily for the turf war.
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