Our sack most unjust –Victims
No comment ‘cause the matter is in court -Rector
From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Industrial crisis looms at the Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, following the sack of two staff of the institution by the management, over allegations of absence from work and causing chaos on campus.
While Comrade Anthony Izaga, a Principal Assistant Registrar who doubles as the branch chairman of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (NASUP) was sacked on April 29 for being absent from work for three days, his counterpart chairman of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) of the institution, Comrade Tobechukwu Ogidi, was fired for allegedly trying to incite the staff against the management through a circulated text message.
Their case has, however, attracted the attention of the entire workforce in the state as the state branch of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), on May 1, issued an ultimatum to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to prevail on the management to recall the sacked workers.
The forceful disengagement started for the two union leaders, with suspension, at various times, and on various charges. Izaga was accused of instigating the national leadership of NASUP to institute a court action against the management of the institution following disagreement between the union and management on the membership status of the union.
Contention over the status of NASUP
While management contends that NASUP was for junior staff, the leadership of the union argues that membership cut across all cadres of non-academic or non-teaching staff, regardless of status.
Dispute over the matter has been on for the past eight years, defying all known methods of industrial dispute resolution. Not even the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Labour yielded the desired result, leading to stoppage of deduction of dues, by members.
On two occasions, agreements were said to had been reached, but the management under the leadership of the former Rector, Prof. Andy O. Egwunyenga, allegedly refused to implement the terms of the agreement said to be favourable to the union. At a point in 2010, a strike was declared by the union but the management refused to budge. It was gathered that the former Rector was summoned to the state House of Assembly over the issue but he did not honour the invitation.
The matter persisted after the appointment of a new Rector, Mrs. Edna Mogekwu in 2012, a situation that left the national leadership of NASUP with no other option than to drag the management of the polytechnic to court.
Comrade Izaga who said he was made a witness in the court case, explained how he courted trouble with the management of the institution after he took excuse to attend the first session of the court on the matter. He said when he came back from the first court sitting, management issued him a query for traveling without permission, adding that he answered: “the query because I had informed the Rector and the Registrar through a text message about my mission. But they said no and put me on suspension and asked the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee (SSDC) to handle the matter. I was on suspension from July last year while SSDC sat on the issue and came up with their report in October.”
The Izaga saga
According to Izaga, the report exonerated him but management refused to do anything about it. Rather, 15 others who were also on interdiction were cleared, adding that his matter was only reported to the leadership of the Anglican Church where he and the Rector worship.
“They told the church leadership that they decided to inform them that since I was being stubborn, they would dismiss me. When it happens, the church will not say they were not informed,” he alleged.
He said he was on interdiction when the Commissioner for Higher Education was appointed and regretted that the intervention of the Commissioner along with Special Adviser to the Governor on Labour, Mike Okeme, yielded no positive results.
“We saw the commissioner for about four times but the Rector and management had their way. We went to the Chairman of the Governing Council, Dr. Festus Okubo, and he asked me to write officially through the Rector to him, pleading for his intervention. I did and the next letter I received was one asking me to go and withdraw the case from court whereas I was not the one who instituted it.”
While Izaga was able to prevail on the union to withdraw the matter, management was alleged to have refused to sign the terms of agreement which reportedly stated, among other things, that all his entitlements should be paid to him because he had been on a half-pay since the commencement of the interdiction.
This development led union leaders to write a letter of protest to the governor, issuing an ultimatum. “As soon as management saw the letter, they issued a fresh query that I was not coming to work,” Izaga said. “I answered. They set up a joint council and academic board committee to try me. I went there for just one day. Even though the committee saw no merit in the case, they asked me to go and beg management, otherwise they would deal with me. Not up to a week later, I heard that my appointment has been terminated because I didn’t come to work for three days.”
Getting giddy over Ogidi
Comrade Ogidi, on his own part, entered into trouble after allegedly circulating a text message to members of ASUP asking them to resist the management decision’s to impose a Dean on the School of Engineering instead of choosing him through a valid election as stipulated by the law governing the polytechnic on the issue.
His text message was deemed offensive by management who allegedly unleashed security operatives on him as officials of Department of State Security (DSS) invited him for a chat. Comrade Ogidi, a lecturer in the Department of Arts and Humanities under School of General Studies initially thought that the DSS operatives were satisfied with his answers only to be informed on January 15 by his Head of Department (HOD), while attending to some health issue at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, that he had a query, issued by management, waiting for him to answer.
The query, on the alleged transmission of inciting text message, was backdated to January 11, and he was to answer within 48 hours of receiving it. “On January 15, I learnt from my HOD that I had a query. It was a Friday and I was at the FMC. I thought I would finish on time and go and pick it up but I did not finish on time,” Ogidi said. “I picked up the query on January 18 which was a Monday. I saw that the query was backdated to January 11 obviously to counter the letter I had written through the Rector to the chairman of the governing council, complaining of harassment. I started answering the query. On January 19, I got a reminder that I delayed in answering the query issued on the 11th. I submitted my answer on January 19, and on January 21, I was sent on suspension. I have been on suspension since then.”
According to him, in less than one week of answering the query, a panel was constituted to try him, adding that when he appeared before the panel, he was accused of being arrogant. “Even before I opened my mouth to speak. I was advised to write a letter of apology to the Rector within six days, otherwise I would be sacked. Few days later, I got a letter of dismissal.”
The reporter’s attempt to hear the management’s side of the story was not successful as the Rector insisted on the phone that she would not comment on any of the issues raised because it is not only now a court case but the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), has taken the matter to a higher authority, the state government and she would rather wait for its verdict.
Confirming that the matter in a media chat, recently, with journalists, State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa promised that government would investigate the matter with a view to establishing if the union leaders were wrongly dismissed.