Union disrupt Uniosun’s convocation ceremony

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The convocation ceremony of the Osun State University has been totally disrupted by institutions workers’ unions who are preventing entry into the main campus venue of the event.
Members of the unions barricaded the main gate of the university, singing solidarity songs insisting that the ceremony would not hold.
Sources within the unions told NewDawn that their action was informed by the insensitivity and high-handedness of the university authority headed by Prof Olabode Popoola, the Vice-Chancellor.
The unions which included the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non- Academic Staff of Universities (NASU) were said to have been at loggerheads with the instution’s management over non-payment of their allowances for over two years.
The unions, it was claimed, had earlier dragged the management before the State Governor and Visitor to the Institution, Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola who had allegedly instructed the management to go and settle with the unions.
The Prof Popoola-led management, it was alleged, had refused to obey the order of the governor.
Matters got to a head when the VC suspended the leadership of the unions and allegedly stopped staff salaries for three months.
NewDawn was reliably informed that the unions reluctantly allowed the first segment to hold following the intervention of some respected personalities, on the understanding that the unions grievances be promptly addressed.
The unions, had since yesterday sprung to action by preventing the second segment.
Hundreds of people including university staffers, graduands and their guests were stranded at the university’s gate while security men comprising the Police and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) mounted heavy security also at the gate to prevent the break down of law and other
As at the time of filing this report none of the guests is being allowed entry.
Eminent personalities to be conferred with honorary degrees at today’s event include elder statesman and former interim chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande.
Chief Akande was the second executive governor of the State of Osun.

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