NDU workers dare Dickson, vow to keep university shut

                  Bayelsa State Governor Seriake Dickson

Yenagoa

 Angry workers of the Bayelsa State-owned Niger Delta University, Amassoma, have rebuffed Governor Seriake Dickson’s call on them to return to work. They have vowed to keep the university shut until Dickson pays them four out of the six months salaries owed them.

 The workers under the aegis of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, National Association of Academic Technologists,  and the Non-Academic Staff of Universities, arrived at the decision after a meeting held in Yenagoa on Saturday.

 The NDU has been shut down for close to two months due to the inability of the state government to pay their salaries for six months. Governor Dickson had at a meeting with members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities approved the payment of full salaries for January to workers of the institution including lecturers.

 Dickson had also said that pending the outcome of a congress meeting of ASUU to determine an acceptable mode of payment of their salaries, he had as well approved the payment of 50 per cent σf  salaries to all staff of the university.

 The governor had said the approval was part of the decisions reached between the state government and the leadership of ASUU, NDU branch, at a meeting in Government House. The workers in NDU are owed about six months salaries since January 2016.

The development has led to the academic body to declare an indefinite strike about two months ago.

 The angry workers also warned the government about any plan to retrench any of them, vowing that they would only go back to work after the full payment of four months salaries.