Ten persons living with disabilities working with Nnamdi Azikiwe University have raised a cry for help to relevant authorities, individuals, and government, over their unpaid salaries for over the past four years. TNC investigations revealed that the university had recruited 10 persons living with disabilities in 2020.
The PWDs it was gathered, had gone through with the necessary documentation required of them and started executing their responsibilities ever since after staff numbers and offices were assigned to them.
They were told to work from August 2020 when they were recruited till December, when the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPIS, a Federal Government payment solution, will come to capture their data.
The physically challenged persons regretted that when the IPPIS came to capture many unpaid staff, none of the staff living with disabilities were captured.
According to one of the persons, Kenechukwu Uka, who spoke to our correspondent, they had written so many letters seeking an appointment to meet with the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof Charles Esimone, all to no avail.
“In some of our letters, he will refer us to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and when we meet the Deputy VC, he will ask us to write another letter and we will do so, yet nothing will happen eventually.
“We continued this until last year when the University pulled down the IPPIS again to capture unpaid staff and unfortunately, none of us was also captured.
“So we are confused.
“When we met the Vice Chancellor at one of the functions he attended and complained to him about our plights, he said the matter would be handled but till now, nothing has been done.
“We have spoken to people we consider to be close to the Vice Chancellor but nothing has happened.
“That is why we are raising this cry for help so that the public will know what we are going through,” he noted.
Uka also spoke of how the university management had frustrated their personal efforts to get the matter sorted out with the university payment portal, the IPPIS, yet they refused to address the matter.
He lamented; “Sometime last year, we contributed money and gave to one of us to go to the IPPIS in Abuja to know what is happening.
“The person was told we should get a letter of recommendation from the university, and that once we get the letter, before one hour, all of us will be captured for salaries.
“Ever since then, we have been writing, asking for that recommendation letter so that we can by ourselves go to Abuja to get captured and start receiving our salaries. To date, they have refused to give us that letter.
“So, you see the predicament we are facing. We do not want to start a fight with our employer but we are at a cross-road now and we need people’s help, those that can speak for us, so that this issue can be addressed.”
Uka bemoaned the hardship the PWDs are facing as a result of the issue, saying that most of them have been sent packing from their apartments because they could not renew their rents, while they are now indebted to food vendors just to feed.
“We the persons affected are not just suffering but we are dying.
“We cannot do any other thing like our able counterparts to survive while we wait for these salaries. That is why we are calling for help from anywhere,” he pleaded.
Meanwhile, when our correspondent spoke with the Special Adviser on Public Relations and Special Duties to the Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr. Emma Ojukwu, he did not explain why the salaries of the persons were delayed for so long but said the recent authorization by the Federal government to universities to pay their staff internally will solve the problem.
“They will be paid soon.
“The recent authorization by the Federal government for universities to pay their staff internally will solve the problem.
“Right now a circular is being awaited from Abuja to make sure all staff receive their salary as and when due,” Ojukwu replied to our reporter.
