Edo teachers vow to down tools over unpaid salaries
A lecturer at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Dr. William Okotie, yesterday, narrated how he lost his wife to the misconduct of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to the Edo State Judicial Panel on police brutality.
Okotie said life has been very difficult for him and his family since he lost his wife, Dr. Stella Okotie, to police recklessness at the UNIBEN Ugbowo campus gate, lamenting that the deceased was killed while standing at the front of the University main gate.
Okotie, who was accompanied by his son, Ogheneochuko to the panel sitting, said the death of his wife could have been avoided if the police officers were not struggling the steering wheel with the commercial driver that resulted in the accident that led to Stella’s death.
“We don’t know what happened between the driver and the policemen. We only saw the police officers dragging the steering wheel with the driver until they hit my wife. My son and I were standing with my wife when the accident happened, he said.
Okotie, a lecturer in the Institute of Public Administration, UNIBEN, also told the panel that the family had buried the deceased, but needed compensation to cater for the family and settle debts incurred during her funeral.
When asked how he has been coping since he lost his wife, he said it had not been easy taking care of the family as he has to battle with cooking and dressing up the children for school.
MEANWHILE, the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) on Monday threatened to go on strike if the state government fails to pay teachers’ outstanding welfare allowances and improve their condition of service.
In a letter addressed to Governor Godwin Obaseki dated November 23, 2020 and signed by state chairman of NUT, Pius Okhueleigbe and Secretary, Mike Moni Itua, the union threatened to embark on strike if government failed to meet their demands.
They said pending issues of teachers’ welfare and conditions of service they agreed with the state government on July 17, 2020 were yet to be addressed.
“The union’s seven-point demands include payment of 2013 to 2015 promotion arrears of primary school teachers in Oredo, Orhionmwon and Uhunwonde council areas,” the letter reads.
The teachers said the union planned to meet with the governor on December 3 or December 4, 2020 and would not hesitate to go on strike if the meeting failed to reach a consensus.
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