FG Reviews what will happen to ASUU if they failed to call off strike

At the beginning of the 80th month of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike, the federal government warned the union to halt its action in defiance of a National Industrial Court (NICN) interim order that barred the union from taking further action.

According to vanguard, Senator Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, issued the warning in a statement signed by Olajide Oshundun, Deputy Director of Press and Public Relations at the ministry, at the weekend.

Recall that ASUU president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said its members were not bound by the Industrial Court order to continue working as the union had appealed the decision and was awaiting the court's application for a stay of execution.

However, Ngige said ASUU should stop taking the law into its own hands by ordering its members to continue the eight-month strike.

He said the union's new directive urging its members to continue the strike was illegal and that the government was disapproving of it.

He also warned that the union risked facing the consequences of not complying with the injunction.

Part of the statement read, "The union is dishonest and misleading its members and the general public by filing an appeal and stay of enforcement of the National Industrial Court order of September 21, 2022, while it has nothing to show for it. "Instead, the ASUU has only filed an application for leave to appeal against the order. It has also attached to its application a draft appeal, which it intends to file if permission to appeal is granted. The application for a stay of execution of the sentence is not even listed for consideration at this time. So where does the ASOU come from?

"It is therefore disrespectful, dishonest and misleading for the union to inform its members that it has not only appealed against the interim order of the National Industrial Court ordering an end to the strike and return to work, but has also filed a stay of execution application," he said.