By Eben Enasco
Stymied by the fiasco occasioned by the unresolved six months old strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities SSANU, a data entry staff of the University of Benin, has reportedly ended his life.
The University Staffer, identified as Carter Oshodin was said to have committed suicide after he was seen by an eyewitness who pleaded for anonymity, begging for financial support from neighbors within the University’s premises on Thursday.
The Federal Government and the leadership of ASUU had been entrapped in disagreement over irregularities in salaries by the government Integrated Personnel and Payroll System IPPS, as well as the university workers’ welfare with no end in sight o when both parties will fuse.
According to the source,, the now deceased Oshodin who was said to have been completely depressed over ‘no work, no pay” of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration later that night reportedly hung himself.
An attempt by our correspondent made to confirm the incident with the SSANU gaffer of the University Of Benin Branch, Comrade Osewa Bedrocks, couldn’t yield the desired result as he declined to comment.
However, the University of Benin Public Relations Officer, Dr. Benedicta Ehanire, offers nothing less than declining to comment on the issue despite admitting to being aware of the incident.
The incident of the death of Carter Oshodin is one of many facing similar challenges in the University communities across the country that now wallows in abject financial defect owing largely to the prolonged industrial action.
Concerned countrymen who are worried over a series of meetings that have ended in standoffs have continued to appeal to both parties to find common ground in resolving the areas of common interests to allow operations in the University to resume.