Breaking!! ASUU calls off strike

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has conditionally suspended their five weeks old strike embarked upon to press for the implementation of agreements reached with the government.

It directed its members to return to the classroom with immediately.

President of the Union, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi who addressed a news conference at about 9.30 pm Monday night after another round of meeting with the government delegation led by the Minister of Labour, Senator Chris Ngige, directed all members of the union to return to work after their branch congresses on Tuesday.

He said they decided to conditionally suspend the strike action in view of the timeline of October 2017 for the implementation of the signed agreement.

He said that the union will not hesitate to resume the suspended action if the government renege on the signed agreement which he called Memorandum of Action, adding that the signed agreement was backed by a definite timeline for implementation.

He warned that the government must not deliberately dishonor the agreement, pointing out that the continuous breach of signed agreement has been responsible for the constant strike action in the Universities.

Ogunyemi said that the current agreement with the government is based on mutual trust between the union and the government, adding that the trust of the union must be respected by the government.

The meeting which started about 4.00pm was supposed to last for about one hour, but dragged for about four hours before agreement was reached on All contending issues.

Briefing Journalist earlier after the meeting which ended at about 7.55pm, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said all the gray areas have been sorted out and an agreement reached.

He said that members of the union had insisted that they were tired of having agreements that are not implemented, pointing out that the content of the agreement was taken from the series of meeting with the union since the commencement of the strike.

Source: The Nation