Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson, has approved the payment of January 2016 salaries to all workers of the state-owned Niger Delta University, NDU, Amassoma.
The governor said the payment included members of the Academic staff Union of Universities and graduate assistants, a statement by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Jonathan Obuebite, said on Friday.
Dickson also said that pending the outcome of a congress meeting of ASUU to determine an acceptable mode of payment of their salaries, he had as well approved the payment of 50 per cent of salaries to all staff of the university.
The governor said the approval was part of the decisions reached between the state government and the leadership of ASUU, NDU branch, at a meeting in Government House.
The workers in NDU are owed about six months salary since January 2016. The development had led the academic body to declaring an indefinite strike about two months ago.
Dickson said the decision to pay the January 2016 salaries of NDU staff, was intended to bring ASUU and other NDU staff at par with other civil servants in the state, who had since received their salaries for January.
Dickson sympathised with ASUU and other staff of NDU, reassuring them of the government’s commitment to the welfare of civil servants, including them, especially ASUU, in view of the utmost importance the administration attached to education.
The governor used the opportunity to explain the general economic downturn in the country, which he declared had adversely affected the revenues of the state.
He said the situation, coupled with the recent upsurge in militancy in the Niger Delta, had equally drastically reduced the state’s quota of oil produced.
The governor reassured all civil servants, including ASUU of the government’s preparedness to pay the backlog of salaries owed them, as soon as the economy improves.
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Source:: Nigerian Pilot
