•Threatens Strike, Legal Action
Members of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), at the weekend, demanded the reinstatement of the branch chairman of the union at the Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu (ASCETA), Kevin Egesi.
The union also demanded payment of 27-month salary arrears and promotion benefits owed the academic staff of the college.
They warned that if their demands were ignored, they would protest and take legal action against the institution.
ASCETA, had in a letter signed by one Mr. Ogbonnaya Njoku, dated December 19, 2022, addressed to Egesi, sacked the latter, citing re-organisation in the institution as the reason.
The decision demanding the reversal of Egesi’s sack, was reached at the South East Zonal delegates’ Congress held in Owerri.
The South East Zonal Coordinator of COEASU, Dr. Churchill Okonkwo, said the delegates viewed Egesi’s sack as ‘witch-hunt,’ wondering why the reason affected the victim alone, and tagged to the re-organisation in the institution.
He said: “Up till now, the college is still on CONTISS, when other colleges are now on CONPCASS and their promotions are quite irregular.
“The financial attachment to their promotion is almost non-existence at all. Sometimes they are promoted without benefits.”
The delegates also, accuses the Provost of the college, Dr. Philips Nto, of deducting between five to 15 per cent from the meagre salary paid to academic staff on the pretext that they were used in cutting grass.
Okonkwi, continued: “What the sacked chairman of COEASU in ASCETA was doing is what every chairman that is sympathetic to the chapter will always do to request that the arrears of salary be cleared.
“That was what Egesi and his executive were doing; fighting for the welfare of academic staff in the college, but the provost took it personal as if he was fighting a personal war with Egesi.
“The college we are talking about is not operating with any governing council.
Nto dismissed the allegations, saying that Egesi was sacked because he was was redundant, adding that “he was neither teaching any course nor engaged in any administrative duties.”
