ASUU Mobilises SANs, Professors To Defend It Before Industrial Court

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has expressed readiness to mobilised Senior Advocates of Nigeria and Professors of Law who are its members to defend the union before the National Industrial Court today.

Recall that the Federal Government instituted a case at the National Industrial Court against ASUU over its prolonged ongoing strike which started on February 14, 2022.

The hearing of the case commences on Monday (today).

A member of the union’s National Executive Council who preferred anonymity said the union would make use of its members who are senior lawyers.

“The president is meant to address this but we will be in court on Monday (today); we have members who are Senior Advocates and Professors of Law, they will be defending the union pro-bono,” the source said.

Also speaking with our correspondent, the union’s National Vice-President, Dr Chris Piwuna, confirmed that members would be in court for the hearing.

“We will be in court tomorrow (Monday) morning. Earlier, we met with the Minister of Education but we are ready for anything. That is the nature of the struggle,” he said.

The chairman, ASUU of the Federal University of Minna, Dr Gbolahan Bolarin, who spoke to the Punch, said, “We are in receipt of the letter and we will be in court tomorrow (Monday). We are, however, shocked at the decision of the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, asked the court to give the case an accelerated hearing to quickly bring the strike to an end.

The demands of the union include; the release of the revitalisation fund for universities, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of lecturers, release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities and the renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement.