15th May, 2014
Abiodun Onafuye/Abeokuta
Ogun State government Thursday debunked claims by the striking workers of the Tai Solarin College of Education, TASCE, Omu-Ijebu that the State government is owing them salaries.
The State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Segun Odubela disclosed this today while addressing a press conference to mark the 3rd anniversary of the present administration in the State.
Odubela explained that the claims of the workers were frivolous and strange to the government.
In a swift reaction, the Chairman of the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU of the institution, Dr. Dan Oludipe debunked the claim, noting that it was a political statement.
He added that the Commissioner was protecting his business interest in the institution and affirmed that the government was owing 12-month salary and 46 months unpaid arrears.
Odubela, while reacting to questions from journalists, explained that the present administration was not owing the workers, adding that the highest arrears the government was owing any of its institutions was about 20 months.
On the request to return the institution back to its original campus in Ijagun he said institutions are properties of the State and TASCE had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TASUED on sharing formula of properties in Ijagun campus.
“When this government came in it paid all the outstanding, we are not owing them. We sit with the management and ask them to pay, and they have been paying because, they normally bring the approval for us and we have been approving it little by little.
“I can’t say how many months they have been paid, but it can never be 46 months, it’s not possible. No schools in the state that is owed 46 months arrears, the maximum is about 20 months. The management has been managing them by clearing the backlog gradually, they also have little IGR, and that is why the thing is going on there.
“There was a time we held a meeting at the SSG’s office, where we all agreed as to how the remaining things; property, money will be shared and they signed. They have collected part of the properties, so, I was surprised when they wrote that they want to take over Ijagun.
“TASCE does not own TASUED, they have different laws that guide them, the ownership remain that of the government,” Odubela explained.
In his own reaction, Oludipe told newsmen that the Commissioner was playing politics with the careers of the lecturers, adding that, Odubela was also protecting his personal business interest in Ijagun campus.
Oludipe said the union never sat with the government to sign an agreement as claimed by the Commissioner.
He challenged the government to make public the agreement. “We have written the Commissioner about the unpaid 48 months arrears and he acknowledged it. He was the one who ordered the payment of two months around March before it was reduced to 46 months.
“The last administration was owing us 14 months unpaid salary, out of which this government has paid four, remaining 10 months backlog and they have agreed to pay. The February and March salary is still unpaid.
“The man is playing politics with our professional careers and lives. We never signed any MoU and the man is playing politics, because he has so many business interest in Ijagun.
He is only protecting his business there, we never signed any MoU and we never shared our property with anyone. Tell him to produce the document,” Oludipe countered.
Staff of the institution has been at loggerheads with the state government since 2005, when they them from Ijagun to Omu Ijebu in order to pave way for the establishment of the University of Education.