The Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU), has threatened to embark on a fresh strike again over the ‘blatant’ refusal of the Accountant General of the Federation, Mr. Ahmed Idris to pay the salaries and remittance of check-off dues of over 1000 of its members for 13 months.
The ASUU chairman, University of Jos, Dr. Lazarus Maigoro, who raised the alarm in a press statement made available to reporters in Jos, 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.
Maigoro, however, called on the federal government to prevail on the AGF to prevent any rift that may lead to the immediate closure of university gates across the country.
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According to him, 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.
He lamented that, ‘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.’
According to him, ‘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.’
Maigoro 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.’
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK