Tony Osauzo, Benin
Staff members and pensioners of the College of Education, now Tayo Akpata University of Education, Ekiadolor, yesterday clashed with security officers at Edo Government House in Benin, during a peaceful protest.
The workers, dressed in black attires, are protesting the 11 months of unpaid salaries and pension.
The clash occurred when security at the Government House gate joined by the Public Safety and Works Volunteer Scheme and the State Traffic Management Agency workers, tried to prevent the protesters from getting close to the gate.
The protesters, however, put up resistance by forcefully pushing back the barricade put up by the security personnel.
They said government ploy would not force them to stop the protest which has been on since July 20.
President, College of Education Academic Union (COASU), Fred Omonuwa, who led the protest said: “We are law-abiding people and will never take laws into our hands.’’
Omonuwa also expressed displeasure with the state government for linking their protest to politics.
“When they came to our school to beg us not to protest, we were not being sponsored. The government has tried to blackmail us by saying we are being sponsored by its political opponents, but will not be blackmailed on the altar of politics for demanding our rights.
Commissioner for Education, Jimoh Ijegbai, had denied the protesters’ claims of being owed salaries by the government.
He said not only was the arrears owed by the previous administration cleared the workers were being paid even while they were not working.
He allegedly linked the genesis of the agitation by the workers to the policies of former governor Adams Oshiomhole, who had changed the college to Tayo Akpata University without a clear-cut direction on managing the interest of the workers.