October 27, 2014 – Aggrieved staffs of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, AOCOED, Ijanikin today stormed Lagos House, Ikeja, to protest against the credibility of members of the ad-hoc committee set up by the governor to address the issues relating to over N150 million deducted at source from staff salary but not remitted to cooperative society, poor funding and other issues.
The state governor had set up an ad-hoc committee chaired by his Special Adviser on Education, Otunba Fatai Olukoga to meet with the aggrieved staff.
The protesters argued that the ad-hoc committee especially the chairman, Olukoga cannot chair the committee considering his antecedents in previous committees on activities concerning the institution.
Addressing pressmen, Chairman of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, Senior Staff Union in Colleges of Education, Nigeria, SSUCOEN and Non Academic Staff Union, NASU AOCOED, Mr. Michael Avosetinyen, Mrs. Wunmi Ombugadu and Mr. Femi Adebayo argued that the ad-hoc committee set-up by Governor Babatunde Fashola, was not genuine.
Avosetinyen explained that when the governor set up the ad-hoc committee, they were happy and attended the meeting summoned in their instance by the committee.
“But when we got to the meeting, we were surprise to discover that the Special Adviser to the Governor who was unable to resolve the issues before the strike commenced was appointed as the chairman.
“The Special Adviser has over the years failed to present the union’s demand before the Governor. We have held several meetings with him (Olukoga) that yielded no fruit. And after such meetings, the union felt that the meeting with the ad-hoc committee is another waste of time and energy. And the union decided to walk away.
“If by now, the issue that had been before the special adviser for over two years and he failed to do something on the issue, we do not believe in the committee. Even after we walked away, nothing concrete has been done to address the issues,” he added.
