The Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) on Saturday has threatened to go on fresh nationwide strike again over non-payment of salaries and alleged victimisation of members by the federal government.
The ASUU chairman, Jos branch, Dr. Lazarus Maigoro who disclosed this in statement made available to Journalists on Saturday noted that the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr Ahmed Idris has refused to pay the salaries and remittance of check-off dues of over 1000 staff for 13 months.
He accused the AGF of not fulfilling the agreement reached between the federal government and the Union, which may lead to another round of strike action that may spell doom for the education sector
He asked Nigerians to blame the federal government if the union embarks on fresh nationwide strike.
According to Maigoro, the astonishing aspect of it all is 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.
Part of the statement reads; “Despite the directive given by Mr president to pay the salaries of all lecturers, the AGF has refused to pay their salaries ranging from four to thirteen months respectively. Many of our members in University of Jos and across the country have not been paid salaries from February 2020 to date.”
He said by this act, the AGF has completely violated the terms of the agreement signed between our “union and the FGN.”
“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.”
He added that, “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.”
