ASUP Slams Abia Govt. Over Withdrawal of Poly Accreditation

The National President, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP),  Anderson Ezeibe, has said that the withdrawal of Abia State Polytechnic’s accreditation is an indictment of the state government.

Ezeibe said this when he spoke with the News correspondents in Aba while reacting to the withdrawal of the polytechnic’s accreditation.

Recall that the institution’s accreditation was withdrawn by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) on Tuesday for alleged non-payment of workers’ salaries for over 30 months.

The ASUP president called on the state government to act quickly to save the future of students studying at the institution.

Ezeibe blamed the state government for failing to act after NBTE allegedly wrote letters to it on the matter.

He said that the NBTE also held meetings with ASUP and the government, after which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the parties.

“Recall the intervention of our union two years ago, which resulted in a mini-summit to discuss the issues of lack of subvention, which made it difficult for salaries to be paid.

“It is as if we saw this day coming; what is going on now at Abia Polytechnic clearly vindicates the position of our union that acted to stop it.

“At that time, the salaries owed the Abia polytechnic staff was about 18 months, but today they are owed about 34 months.

“This means nothing improved in spite of the MOU signed at the end of the summit on the responsibilities of the state government to the institution.

“The government abandoned that agreement and continued on the path of starving the institution of funds,” he said.

According to Ezeibe, the step taken by NBTE on Abia Polytechnic is its way of saying that the action of the state government is offending their regulatory instruments.

The Secretary to the State Government, Chris Ezem, in a special announcement, said the governor, who described NBTE’s action as embarrassing, appealed to students of the institution and other well-meaning Abians to remain calm.