Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has agreed to suspend its eight months strike action.
ASUU’s decision was taken at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union in Abuja early Friday.
A formal announcement is expected to be made Friday morning.
A member of ASUU-NEC who was at the meeting told PREMIUM TIMES on Friday morning that the suspension of the strike was based on last week’s ruling of the Court of Appeal which asked the union to obey an order of the National Industrial Court.
The industrial court had granted an injunction sought by the Federal Government, ordered the lecturers to suspend the strike pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The government, it was gathered, was yet to meet the demands of the lecturers.
ASUU embarked on strike action on February 14, 2022, to protest the non-implementation of the 2009 Memorandum of Understanding reached with it by the Federal Government.
ASUU is requesting the release of revitalisation funds for universities, payment of its members’ earned academic allowances, the release of whitepapers from the reports of the presidential visitation panels as well as the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as the preferred payment platform for university workers.
The union also rejected IPPIS, which the government uses to pay all civil servants’ salaries, arguing that the platform is fraudulent and does not recognise the peculiarities of the universities.
