24th April, 2021
By Jethro Ibileke/Benin
The management of Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, has postponed resumption for the new academic session indefinitely.
This was contained in a statement issued in Auchi on Saturday, endorsed by the Registrar of the Polytechnic, Dr. Godwin Ihionkhan.
The statement read in part: “This is to inform staff and students that resumption for the new academic session has been postponed indefinitely.”
The postponement might not be unconnected with the nationwide strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), over non implementation of a new salary scheme for polytechnic lecturers.
President of ASUP, Anderson Ezeibe, had vowed that the union would sustain the nationwide industrial action declared on 6 April, despite the ₦15 billion offered it by the federal government.
ASUP had explained that its decision to down tool was to draw the attention of the government to the nine basic needs of the union.
It added that the need to release the 10 months in arrears of the new minimum wage owed its members in Federal Polytechnics and the implementation of same in the several states yet to implement the new minimum wage, was one of the reasons it embarked on strike.