Lecturers under the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, on Sunday, March 15th, 2020 protested against the deductions made from their February salaries, following their enrollment in the Integrated Payment and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The union remarked that the Federal Government did not put into consideration the peculiarities of tertiary institutions in the IPPIS.

The lecturers added that their February salaries

did not include the Peculiar Earned Academic Allowance

and their colleagues on sabbatical leave were also not paid.

The COEASU National President, Nuhu Ogirima, in a statement in Abuja, regretted that the lecturers’ pension and the

imposed obnoxious tax deductions were effected on gross earnings of staff, which included non-taxable allowances, as against the basic salary on which such deductions ought to be effected.

Ogirima said,

It is evident that the peculiarities of the Colleges of Education subsector, despite the stakeholders’ meetings with IPPIS office, prior to its implementation, have not been reflected.

For the avoidance of doubt, the February salary paid by the Federal Government did not include the Peculiar Earned Academic Allowance. Also not paid are staff on sabbatical leave. In addition, indiscriminate deductions were effected on all staff salary, for the National Housing Fund, a voluntary scheme to which most staff did not subscribe.

The union views this as a serious breach of trust and therefore considers the Federal Government’s betrayal as unacceptable. We therefore state that the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation should, as a matter of urgent concern, take steps to ameliorate this situation.

The COEASU added that it was preparing to convene its Expanded National Executive Council meeting to discuss further move on the IPPIS and other matters.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.