RIVERS STATE TEACHERS DRAG GOVERNOR WIKE TO COURT
No fewer than 254 workers, whose salaries have been stopped since February 2016, have dragged the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Bayelsa State.
The workers, who are teachers of primary and demonstration schools of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, and Ken Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, have prayed the court to compel the government to pay their salaries.
Governor Wike had reportedly announced in February
2016 that the state government would no longer pay the salaries of primary and
secondary schools’ teachers of demonstration schools of RSUST and other
designated institutions where pupils and students pay school fees.
The teachers, 102 of RSUST, 97 of IAUE and 55
of KSWP, claimed that since Wike’s order in February, their relevant
institutions had refused to pay their salaries.
While the demonstration schools at KSWP are said to
have been shut down since Wike’s directive, those of RSUST and IAUE have yet to
be closed down but the affected teachers have remained unpaid for five months.
The claimants (unpaid teachers) in suits
NICN/YEN/87/2016 for IAUE; NICN/YEN/88/2016 for KSWP and NICN/YEN/89/2016 for
RSUST, sued Nyesom Wike (1st defendant), for ordering the stoppage of their
salaries.
The claimants, who prayed the court to
declare their appointments valid and subsisting, also joined the
Attorney-General of Rivers State (2nd defendant) and their various institutions
– RSUST, IAUE and KSWP (3rd defendant) in the suit.
In the reliefs sought by the claimants against the
defendants, jointly and severally, they prayed the industrial court to
declare that their respective employments were valid and subsisting.
They also urged the court to declare that the
claimants were entitled to the payments of their respective salaries,
allowances and emoluments until they attain their respective ages of retirement
of the third defendants.
The claimants also sought declaration that the 1st
defendant’s directive stopping the payment of their salaries with effect from
the end of February 2016 was unlawful, null and void.
They also sought a declaration that the 1st
defendant (Wike) had no right to order the discontinuance of the payment of
their salaries with effect from February 2016.
RIVERS STATE TEACHERS DRAG GOVERNOR WIKE TO COURT
Reviewed by adeyemo nathaniel
on
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
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