Owed Unizik employees for over 3 years will soon smile

Employees of Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka who have remained unpaid since their employment for over three will soon smile. This followed a motion moved by the House of Representatives Member representing Awka North and South Federal Constituency, Prof. Oby Lilian Orogbu in that respect. Orogbu in the motion called for investigation of the delay in capturing and payment of the workers by the authorities of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS). To that end, the Ad-Hoc Committee set up by the House of Representatives invited Unizik Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Okechukwu Esimone, for further clarification and confirmation. The Ad-Hoc Committee, which is saddled with investigating Federal Ministries, Department and Agencies, Parastatals, and Tertiary Institutions on mismanagement of personnel recruitment, employment racketeering and gross mismanagement of IPPIS. While interrogating Prof. Esimone on Tuesday, August 15, 2023, the Panel Leader and Chairman House Committee on Judiciary, Oluwole Oke, wondered how the affected staff could have fended for themselves and their families without payment of salaries for over three years, assuring that the leadership of the House of Representatives was determined to put an end to all the irregularities. Oke, who represents Obokun/Oriade Federal Constituency, Osun State, tasked the vice-chancellor to provide the panel with comprehensive details of all the affected staff. In a response, Prof. Esimone, who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Administration), Prof. Joseph Ikechebelu, said about a thousand staff of the University were affected, and promised to provide a comprehensive details as requested by the Ad-Hoc Committee, even as he decried untold suffering of the affected staff, who he said, still come to work. Recall that Prof. Oby Lilian Orogbu had on July 20, 2023, moved a Motion on “the need to investigate the delay in capturing and payment for Nnamdi Azikiwe University workers and other Nigerians in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS)”. Orogbu appealed to her colleagues to see the importance of the Motion, which had kept a lot of UNIZIK staff and workers across the nation in a serious financial crisis. She said, “The House needs to look into this matter. It’s quite unfair that people would be working for three years, take transport in Nigeria of today and they are not being paid”.