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By Viashima Sylvanus, Jalingo
Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas has warned the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU), Taraba State University chapter, from threatening him with possible strike action if their demands are not urgently met.
Governor Kefas gave the warning on Wednesday while fielding questions from reporters as part of activities to mark his first year in office.
He noted that his administration is aware that the lecturers have genuine demands that he inherited and, while is working hard to address the demands, he will not take any threats from the union lightly.
The governor said that the lecturers are owed some allowances and he is going to offset them, but his findings show that some of the supposed lecturers are ghost workers and he is trying to verify who is authentic or otherwise before he will make any payments.
“I am working hard to .eet their demands and they should not threaten me. If they go on strike, they will be very unfair even to themselves. We have declared free education for students and they are part of the beneficiaries of this policy.
“As it is, we are paying their salaries and trying to verify the authenticity of some of the staff because we have discovered that there are ghost workers there. Once we complete the process of expunging those ghost workers, we would pay the authentic staff and try to meet their other demands,” he said.
Reacting to the Governor’s position, the chapter Chairman of ASUU Comrade Joshua Mbave said that the union was not threatening the governor but rather demanding for their demands.
“As a union, why would we threaten the governor who is The Visitor to the University? It doesn’t make sense. We are demanding for our rights and that is all. It is also within our rights as provided by law, that if your employer fails in their obligation to you, you can down tools until these demands are met. So that is not a threat.
“We also don’t have a problem with the Governor’s effort to verify authentic staff of the University. As a matter of fact, we supported a verification exercise that the governor ordered and was completed months ago. The whole staff strength of the University is not more than Three Thousand. So does it take years to verify them? All we are asking for is for our demands to be met for the smooth running of the University and our wellbeing,” Mbave said.
While highlighting his achievements, Kefas maintained that his administration met a lot of challenges but is working hard to overcome them and deliver on the promises of he made during the campaigns and fulfil his vision for the state.
