No
fewer than 254 workers, whose salaries have been stopped since February
2016, have dragged the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to the
National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Bayelsa State.
The workers, who are teachers of primary
and demonstration schools of the Rivers State University of Science and
Technology, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, and Ken Saro-Wiwa
Polytechnic, Bori, have prayed the court to compel the government to pay
their salaries.
Governor Wike had reportedly announced
in February 2016 that the state government would no longer pay the
salaries of primary and secondary schools’ teachers of demonstration
schools of RSUST and other designated institutions where pupils and
students pay school fees.
The teachers, 102 of RSUST, 97 of IAUE
and 55 of KSWP, claimed that since Wike’s order in February, their
relevant institutions had refused to pay their salaries.
While the demonstration schools at KSWP
are said to have been shut down since Wike’s directive, those of RSUST
and IAUE have yet to be closed down but the affected teachers have
remained unpaid for five months.
The claimants (unpaid teachers) in suits
NICN/YEN/87/2016 for IAUE; NICN/YEN/88/2016 for KSWP and
NICN/YEN/89/2016 for RSUST, sued Nyesom Wike (1st defendant), for
ordering the stoppage of their salaries.
The claimants, who prayed the court to
declare their appointments valid and subsisting, also joined the
Attorney-General of Rivers State (2nd defendant) and their various
institutions – RSUST, IAUE and KSWP (3rd defendant) in the suit.
In the reliefs sought by the claimants
against the defendants, jointly and severally, they prayed the
industrial court to declare that their respective employments were valid
and subsisting.
Credit: Punch
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