A lecturer at the Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Port Harcourt, Solomon Tamunotonye, has lamented the failure of the institution to pay his salary over a period of 20 months.
According to The PUNCH, Tamunotonye was suspended for three months by the Polytechnic administration on allegations of “harassment and exploitation” of Blessing Audu, a female student enrolled in the 200-level.
Later, the polytechnic forwarded the lecturer’s case to a committee for review and advice.
However, Tamunotonye voiced his dissatisfaction in his conversation with journalists that the management had written to him months later to begin work and provide a written apology without telling him or making the committee’s conclusions public.
However, the lecturer from the Department of Public Administration claimed that the management had ceased paying him since he refused to submit an apology letter and insisted that the claims against him were baseless.
He stated, “I have been having a running battle with my polytechnic that borders on false allegation which the polytechnic put in the social and traditional media sometime on January 7, 2022.
“They put the false allegation with a caption of sexual harassment against a student with my name in the media. Based on that, they suspended me for three months and set up a committee to investigate the matter.
“Five months after the setting of that investigative panel and the conclusion of that investigation, they refused to release the report of the committee. Rather they wrote to me to resume work and write an apology letter to the management.”
Continuing, he said, “I actually resumed work but refused to write an apology letter because I have not seen the need for an apology letter because I didn’t commit the offence I was accused of.
“I believe in the laws of the polytechnic which is that the punishment for sexual harassment of a female student by any lecturer is dismissal and not an apology letter.
“If I write an apology letter to the management, what is the remedy for the girl who was said to have suffered sexual harassment? So, I said they should rather release the report and punish me accordingly if I am found wanting by the committee. But they refused.
“However, I resumed work and because of my refusal to write the apology letter, they continued to hold my salary till now. It’s about 20 months. But the Rivers State Government has continued to pay my salary because I receive my pension alert every month.”
Tamunotonye also claimed that three polytechnic employees, whom he claimed to be able to identify, attacked him on December 16, 2022.
“They collected my two phones and damaged my laptop in an attempt to destroy evidence I have to present in court,” he alleged.
“As I speak to you, the Commissioner of Police Monitoring Unit, GRA, Port Harcourt, where they went and arrested me for claims that I went to steal in the school, the police have finished their investigation and we are now talking about the matter in court. So, I wouldn’t want to talk on that because the matter is already in court.”
Regarding the theft claims made against him, he stated that the police had wrapped up their investigation but added that a prominent polytechnic student was using his connections in high places to “frustrate the matter from being charged to court.”
Tamunotonye said he had started working menial jobs to survive and pleaded with Nigerians, the State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and civil society organisations to help him.
When reached, the Polytechnic’s Registrar, Chris Woke, told journalists over the phone in a terse response that the matter was in court.
“Well, the case is in court,” Woke said. I can’t say anything while the case is in court. Tamunotonye, the young man, should know what is good for him.”
