Students in limbo as Plateau tertiary institutions begin indefinite strike

The Joint Union of Plateau State Owned Tertiary Institutions (JUPTI) has embarked on an indefinite strike over five months salary arrears.

The action followed a letter dated August 23 which was signed by Paul Dakogol and Ayum Solomon, JUPTI chairman and secretary, respectively.

The union, in the letter, gave government a seven-day ultimatum within which the arrears should be paid or face the consequences.

NAN reports that students were denied access into the Jos campus of the Plateau State Polytechnic as the main entrance was under lock and key.

Luka Panpe, secretary, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Plateau Polytechnic chapter, told NAN that the strike became necessary owing to the failure of the government to keep to its side of the bargain.

He said the union had reached an agreement with the government who promised to clear the salary arrears before the end of 2017 but failed.

“Our five months salaries was withheld because of the no work, no pay policy introduced by the previous administration. We took government to court in search of justice,” he said.

“But when the current government came on board, it pleaded with us to suspend our strike and withdraw the case from court, with a promise to pay us before the end of 2016, and we did.

“However, due to government’s failure to keep to its part of the agreement for the whole of 2016 and 2017, we again met with it in February. 2018. It promised to pay the arrears between April and July.

“We are now in September, and they haven’t said anything, and we have not seen any readiness that we will be paid soon.

“This is why we have decided to resume the indefinite strike that government earlier pleaded with us to suspend.”

Yakubu Dati, the state commissioner for information and communications, said the government was unable to pay the arrears due to paucity of funds.

“Government has tabled the five-months arrears for payment, but we couldn’t do it until now because of scarce resources at our disposal,” he said.

“The issue of workers emolument is a priority to this government, but we can only do that judiciously within the resources available to us.

“So, we want to plead and we will continue to plead with the union to exercise patience and return to work because soon, we shall put this matter to rest.”