Obaseki, Pay AAU Staff Their 32 Months Salary – Stop Using Edo Money to Campaign for Asue Ighodalo

Obaseki, Pay AAU Staff Their 32 Months Salary – Stop Using Edo Money to Campaign for Asue Ighodalo

Press Statement from the APC New Media Directorate

The APC New Media Directorate is compelled to address the shocking and heart-wrenching revelations that have recently come to light regarding the Edo State Government’s deliberate neglect of Ambrose Alli University (AAU) staff. It is with a deep sense of outrage and profound disappointment that we call out Governor Godwin Obaseki and the PDP for their blatant misuse of Edo State resources, including the unpaid salaries of AAU staff, to fund the gubernatorial campaign of Asue Ighodalo.

During a recent interactive meeting between the Labour Party gubernatorial candidate and AAU staff, senior lecturers bravely spoke out about the dire situation they have been enduring. These dedicated educators revealed, with pain and anguish, that Obaseki owes them a staggering 32 months of unpaid salaries, with some staff members owed up to 25 months and others even more. One senior lecturer, overcome by emotion, pleaded to be recorded on video, sending a desperate message to Obaseki: stop using Edo State’s money to fund elections while the hardworking staff of AAU suffer in silence.

It is nothing short of a disgrace that Godwin Obaseki, who has failed the people of Edo State for eight long years, is now using the unpaid salaries of AAU staff to bankroll the campaign of the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Asue Ighodalo. It is especially galling that Ighodalo, who has served as Obaseki’s economic adviser for these eight years, is complicit in this travesty. How ironic that the very person who may have advised Obaseki on the state’s financial matters is now being positioned as his successor, while the great citadel of learning in Edo is left to languish in financial ruin.

Governor Obaseki, Edo State’s resources aren’t your personal campaign fund. The substantial fall in AAU funding from over N270 million under Oshiomhole’s tenure to less than a hundred million is a direct attack on the institution and its staff. As a result, 32 months of pay have yet to be paid, and numerous other entitlements have been ignored. This is more than just an administrative failure; it is a profound moral failure.

We must not politicize everything; now is the time to demand accountability from the outgoing governor. Governor Obaseki, you owe the people of Edo State answers: Why have you crippled AAU? Why have you chosen to destroy the only remaining institution in Esanland? Your actions have brought untold suffering to the families of AAU staff, and you have turned a beacon of education into a shadow of its former self.

The people of Edo State will not stand by while you use their money to fund your political ambitions. We demand that you immediately pay the outstanding salaries of AAU staff and stop diverting funds meant for the welfare of our people to prop up your chosen successor. Edo State deserves better, and we will not be silent in the face of such blatant injustice.

Signed,
Osigwe Omo-Ikirodah
APC New Media Directorate