The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has temporarily called off the eight-month-long strike, LM is now able to confirm.
Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who used to be the president of the union, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
”The union will issue a statement to that effect as soon as possible,” he said.
He said the union’s leaders met on Thursday night and into Friday morning, where they ultimately decided to call off the strike.
The union’s state chapters had previously convened on October 7 to discuss the Court of Appeal verdict, prompting the national organisation to call for the meeting.
Prof. Kasim Umar, Chairman of ASUU at the University of Abuja, has also verified the suspension.
Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, he said, will brief reporters on behalf of the National ASUU.
The academic staff union ASUU was ordered by the Court of Appeal to terminate its strike before its appeal of the verdict requiring lecturers to resume work could be heard.
The meeting was held at the ASUU National Secretariat in Abuja and was attended by members of the union’s National Executive Committee, which consists of the chairmen of the state chapters and members of the national executive.
The ASUU strike began on February 14, 2022.
In a judgement handed by a three-member panel led by Justice Hamma Barka, the Court of Appeal stated that it would not hear any appeal from ASUU until it obeyed the order of the National Industrial Court, NIC.
It did, however, grant the aggrieved varsity professors permission to pursue the 14 grounds of appeal they had previously filed to overturn the NIC’s interlocutory injunction in favour of the Federal Government.
On September 21, the Industrial Court ordered ASUU to end its strike in the national interest and for the welfare of the country’s undergraduates.
It ordered the striking lecturers to return to class until the outcome of a lawsuit brought by FG to challenge the legitimacy of their strike action.
Justice Polycarp Hamman, in a decision on the Federal Government’s interlocutory injunction, barred ASUU from extending the strike until the issue was concluded.
While on vacation, Justice Polycap issued an order directing the Industrial Court president to reassign the case to another judge.
