Lecturers and members of the state chapter of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) at the Abia State University protested on Friday over their 11 months unpaid salaries by the state government and several other agreements yet to be implemented by the federal and state governments. 

The President of ASUU, Abia State chapter, Dr. Chidi Mba said the protest had become necessary to drive home their agitations after several months of being neglected by relevant authorities about their plight. 

They moved round the city of Uturu, visited traditional rulers, market women and spoke to the students to get them abreast of the situation.

Speaking to SaharaReporters on Friday, Dr. Mba noted that Governor Alex Otti's deception to lecturers and members of ASUU including the public must be addressed.

"Firstly, the 2009 agreement we have with the Federal Government and ASUU based on salaries and allowances are yet to be fulfilled. We have been speaking with them for two years now so we can renegotiate, yet no word from them.

"Secondly, we are being owed 11 months salaries, including April, May and June of 2024. Some were either paid for April and May, while others were paid for May or April only. It's incomplete.

"Another issue we have with the state government is the Treasury Single Account (TSA). We support the government's infrastructural ideas and achievements so far, but does he want us to die before we use them? We are saying that the TSA is only meant for ministry and parastatals. All we want from him is to increase our subvention like other universities. Our wage bill today is over N360 million naira. We only currently get about a 100 million from government. Ebonyi State University's wage bill is about 285 million naira and the government pays them at least 250 million naira. So why is our case different?" He said.

The protesters in their hundreds were armed with several placards with different inscriptions, some of which read: "agreement is agreement, honour agreement",  "Pay us our third party deductions", "TSA rejected" and so on. They marched through Uturu community and its environs chanting solidarity songs for those who cared to listen.

According to reports gathered by SaharaReporters, the said eleven months salary owed the lecturers was during the long strike embarked by ASUU which saw all students return to their respective homes and lectures grounded. 

"If you say we were on strike for 11 months, was it only ABSU? It was a general strike that grounded all government owned institutions under ASUU. Every other schools were paid. Ours can't be different. The Governor, proposed to pay 60%, telling us to forfeit 40%, we said NO!

"We have given them two weeks to oblige our request. Failure to do that will mean we will back to the streets in a bigger way" he said.