The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University branch, Prof. Okey Aniebo, has said no staff member of the institution is paying taxes.
Aniebo, who stated this at a press conference in Awka, Anambra State, said this was because tax deductions from the institution’s employees were not being remitted to the government.
He said the bad condition of service in the university had made it imperative for lecturers to sustain the nationwide strike, describing those lecturers, who gathered on Tuesday and announced that they had backed out of the strike as stooges and misdirected people.
Some lecturers of the university, led by Professor Osita Chiaghanam, had after their meeting on Tuesday, announced that they had pulled out from the strike in the interest of the institution, the students and lecturers.
Chiaghanam also said the management of the university had shown demonstrable commitment to their welfare.
But the ASUU chairman stated that events before the kangaroo meeting confirmed the desperation of the vice-chancellor to frustrate the ongoing national industrial action at the Chukwuexneka Odumegwu Ojukwu University by using all the means at his disposal to lure unsuspecting members of staff to the said meeting.
He pointed out that the unsuspecting members of staff were initially informed that the vice-chancellor would address the meeting about the position of his administration on the lingering issues with ASUU, adding that to ensure compliance, the vice-chancellor used directors of centres, deans of faculties and HODs, who are his willing tools, to invite the lecturers under them to the said meeting.
He also said that the unsuspecting lecturers, who turned up for the meeting, were mandated to sign a well-prepared attendance register as a condition for entering the hall, where they expected to be addressed by the vice-chancellor
According to him, incidentally, the unsuspecting lecturers were eventually informed that it was a meeting of a splinter group of academic staff of the COOU, which is against the ASUU national industrial action.
Aniebo enjoined members of the public and students to disregard any claim that lecturers of the university had pulled out of the national strike
He added, “In the records of the government, no staff member of the COOU is a taxpayer as staff tax deductions are not remitted to the government. The same can be said of greater percentage of the National Housing Fund contributions by the staff members of the COOU.
“The false claim by Professor Chiaghanam is indeed an insult on the psyche of the entire members of staff of the COOU, who are silently licking the wound of long time neglect of the university.”
