The management of Spider Webs Security Company of Nigeria on Saturday staged a protest against the management of the Federal Polytechnic Bauchi over alleged breach of contract agreement.
Speaking during the protest, the director training and operations of the security outfit, Captain Dauda Maishanu appealed to the Rector of the Polytechnic to pay them their thirty five months outstanding salary.
Captain Dauda Maishanu said they were left with no other option than to embark on the protest after failure on the part of the institution to fulfill all the promises it made.
According to him, the company had served the Rector of the polytechnic with letters twice concerning the salary with a reply after a series of efforts by the company to discuss failed.
Director Training and Operation revealed that on 30th September 2021 the Polytechnic issued a letter of disengagement to the company and invited another sister security company to take over from them without settling their outstanding salaries.
He stated that the 35 months outstanding salary of 161 patrol men consisting of male and female currently serving the polytechnic amounted to over N200 million.
Captain Dauda who called on the management of the Polytechnic to ensure that the backlog salaries are settled in the spirit of fairness and justice, pleaded with the affected personnel to exercise patients.
He assured them that the management of the security company is on top of the matter and it will be addressed.
Also speaking, some of the protesters, Abubakar Kardam and Serah James, appealed to the management of the company to take the matter seriously.
According to them, by doing so, they would have something that would enable them to settle their outstanding debts owed foodstuff sellers, house rent, school fees of their children, among others.
When contacted for comment, the public relations officer of the institution, Rabiu Wada said although he was unaware of the said protest, findings revealed that some of the spider webs security personnel actually protested yesterday.
However, the PRO argued that the protest should have been staged at their office headquarters and not the institution’s premises as the contractual agreement was reached with the company and not its personnel.
“I made my findings, yes. Ordinarily, the personnel have to protest in their office headquarters not the federal Polytechnic Bauchi as the federal Polytechnic Bauchi engaged spider company and not spider personnel, actually”, he stressed.
According to him, before the engagement of spider webs security company by the Polytechnic, a sister security company called Royal Security Guards after the outsource of the institution’s.
“Actually, this policy came in 2013 when President Goodluck Jonathan, I mean 2003 to be precise when President Obasanjo said that all tertiary institutions had to outsource their cleaning services and security personnel and we started with Royal Security Guards”, he said.
The PRO noted that when their contractual agreement ended with Royal Security Guards, the institution engaged spider webs, adding that their contractual agreement with them elapsed on 31st December last year after issuing them notice of three months.
He said that the management of the Polytechnic has engaged another security firm which has indicated intention to source some of its personnel from spider webs security company if any one of them is willing to work with them.
“I think forms were issued to them and the company is willing to engage some of the personnel. So, our agreement is not with the personnel of the spider company, it was with the spider company and so we expect the personnel to protest for whatever in their head office”, he explained.
The PRO noted that “if such has happened, I think amicable agreement was reached with the officials of the spider webs, I think that was why the protest was not even known by even some of us, the staff of the company”.
“I think their protest has not generated what you have. It’s just an issue of somebody having to express his grievances for not knowing his fate, so I think that has been resolved actually by even some of us that live within the area we are not even aware of what has happened, so, that’s just it”, he maintained.
The PRO said that Polytechnic only engaged the security company and as such, it is only accountable to the company and not the personnel.
“So, whatever month the Polytechnic is owing them, I think it is our obligation, we will settle them when we have the funds to do that”, he noted.
