With the educational sector still recovering from the resumption of tertiary institutions after activities were crippled due to a year-long strike, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) is contemplating embarking on another industrial action.
According to ASUU, this is due to the alleged refusal of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris to pay the salaries and remittance of check-off dues of over 1000 staff for 13 months.
Lazarus Maigoro, the ASUU chairman, University of Jos, made this disclosure via a press statement in Jos.
Maigoro accused the AGF of fanning the ember of discord between the federal government and the Union, which may lead to another round of strike action that may spell doom for the education sector.
The ASUU Chieftain urged the Federal Government to wade into the issue in order to forestall the potential shutdown of the tertiary education sector.
He stated that despite the directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to effect the immediate payments of salaries of lecturers, coupled with the signing of the 2020 MoA, the AGF is still insisting that the lecturers must go to Abuja and register with the IPPIS.
Maigoro said, “Mr. Ahmed Idris, from all intent and purposes, is bent on withholding the salaries of over 1,000 members of ASUU spread across the country with more than 100 of such lecturers being members of our Branch in University of Jos.”
“More worrisome is the fact that while the AGF is refusing to pay these salaries, his staff in the OAGF are busy calling the affected lecturers and insisting they have to register with IPPIS before they are paid; some are even asked to forfeit a part of their salaries in order to be paid. So it is very clear that this is a deliberate act on the part of the AGF and his staff.
