ASUU : STRIKE YET TO BE CALLED OFF

ASUU is expected to call off its strike after its NEC meeting.

Reports reaching us from Minna, Niger State, indicates that the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, which commenced at about 11 a.m. Monday was still ongoing at 8:25 p.m.

Journalists present also reported that there was an incident at the venue of the meeting, the Senate building of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, when officials of the FUT Minna branch of ASUU reportedly manhandled journalists who converged to cover the proceedings.

A witness said the branch chairman of the union, Abdulfatai Jimoh, ordered all reporters to be walked out because they were not invited to the meeting. It took the intervention of the University’s Information Officer, Lydia Legbo, to get Mr. Jimoh to allow reporters back into the arena.

ASUU is expected to call off its over five month old strike at the end of Monday’s NEC meeting.

An official at the NEC meeting informed us that ASUU is yet to take a decision on the strike, adding that the NEC took a long time discussing how best to immortalise late Festus Iyayi, who died in an accident in Kogi state on his way to attend ASUU NEC meeting in Kano last month.

“The strike is the last on the agenda as we are currently discussing what is to be done to immortalize the late Professor Festus Iyayi,” our source said.

Details later…