Lecturers of the Council of Academic Staff Unions of Osun State Owned Tertiary Institutions (CASUOSTI) on Monday gathered at the Osun State House of Assembly to protest non-payment of their salaries for the past eight months.

The protest was by the leaders of the body including Chairman, Lasisi Jimoh; Secretary Olusegun Lana and Public Relations Officer, Dotun Omisore.

The lecturers, who had been on strike for the past three months were armed with placards coupled with various inscriptions,  to include ‘Save our Souls’, ‘Enough is Enough’, ‘Pay our Salaries’ and ‘We Reject Half Salaries’, sang anti- government songs.

The lecturers while speaking promised not to turn up for the fresh verification exercise directed by the state government.

The angry lecturers said they were shocked with the plan of the state government to pay workers half salaries because the state had received its share of the bailout fund from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

While addressing the protesters, the Chief Whip of the House of Assembly, Mr. Folorunsho Bamisayemi, appealed to them to exercise patience and be calm saying efforts were underway to ensure their demands were met.

The Speaker, Mr. Najeem Salam, after spending some minutes later walked out on them when he could not withstand the screaming of the protesters.

The Secretary of the council, who spoke with CEOAfrica, said lecturers had been on strike for the past months without government seeking to negotiate with them.

Lana said, “We came to the House of Assembly to submit Save Our Souls letter. The protest went well until the Speaker walked out on us.

” The state government has not been remitting pension deductions from our salaries to our Pension Fund Administrators, this is against the law. The deductions are supposed to be remitted seven days after salaries are paid but this is not happening.”

Lana also stated that the institutions were understaffed and the few lecturers were overburdened despite not being paid for many months.