Court orders ASUU to call off 7-month-old strike

Court orders ASUU to call off 7-month-old strike

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has ordered the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its ongoing nationwide strike which started February 14.

Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment on behalf of the Federal Government had filed the matter before the court as a way to resolve the issue of the ongoing strike by ASUU.

Subsequently, the federal government’s counsel, James Igwe applied for an interlocutor injunction to restrain ASUU from continuing with the strike , which was granted by Justice Polycarp Hamman, who presided over the case.

He also dismissed the argument of Femi Falana, counsel to ASUU, who said asking the union to resume work is wrong, adding that there would not have been a need to embark on any strike if the applicants had kept to various agreements and MOUs reached in the past.

ASUU commenced the strike action after it accused the federal government of reneging on previous agreements on matters such as increased funding of universities and increasing lecturers’ salaries.