From Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ambrose Alli University (AAU) Ekpoma Chapter yesterday issued a fresh 30-day notice of legal action to the relevant authorities of the University over the recently conducted biometrics verification exercise for staff in the University.
The Union insisted that the biometrics verification exercise was inconclusive, fraught with irregularities, compromise, intimidation, and perceived vendetta.
The union in a press statement, signed by Dr. Cyril Oziegbe Onogbosele and Dr. William Odion, Chairperson and Assistant Secretary of ASUU AAU, Ekpoma, respectively and made available to journalists in Benin City, said that the dehumanizing conditions its members and other staff of the University were subjected to during the biometrics verification exercise were unimaginable.
According to the statement, “Members of the Union were embarrassed, harassed, humiliated, intimidated and coerced by the Biometrics Verification Team to make presentations for the exercise against published criteria and requirements by the University Administration.
“All complaints by the Union to the relevant authorities, including the Visitor to the University and Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki over the anomaly and inclusive nature of the controversial biometrics verification exercise were ignored, hence the 30-day legal pre-action notice”,
The academic union body also urged the Visitor to the University and governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki to halt the continuing waste and mismanagement of the University’s lean resources on meetings and sitting allowances of members of the University’s Special Intervention Team (SIT)