Law Professors, SANS, To Represent ASUU At Industrial Court Today

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, who are also Senior Advocates of Nigeria and Professors of Law, among others, will be representing the union as the case instituted by the Federal Government at the National Industrial Court comes up for hearing on Monday (today).

Federal Government had dragged the union before the National Industrial Court over its continued strike, which began on February 14, 2022.

ASUU is demanding the deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System(UTAS) for the payment of salaries and allowances of lecturers, the release of the revitalisation fund for universities, the release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and the release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities and the renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement.

After measures to end the strike fell, the government resolved to drag the union before the industrial court.

A source who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity said, “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.

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

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“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.

In another interview, the chairman of ASUU for the Federal University of Minna, Dr Gbolahan Bolarin, 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.”