The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has listed six universities where its members are being “victimised, maltreated, and illegally dismissed” and resolved to go tough on the institutions.
The Bauchi Zone of the Union, which comprises universities in Bauchi, Plateau, and Gombe, while briefing journalists at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi, on Saturday, the Zonal Coordinator, Prof. O. A. Timothy Namo, said: “These universities include Lagos State University (LASU), Ojoo; Kogi State University (KSU), Anyigba; Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki; Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma; Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Igbariam.”
He said the briefing was to draw the attention of all critical stakeholders to the “unjustifiable and excruciating” hardship being meted out to their colleagues in the universities.
According to him, the union is worried that the respective visitors and administrators of the universities have continued to victimise ASUU members through “wicked actions, including termination of appointments, suspension from work, withholding of salaries and allowances, denial and delay of promotion, exclusion from statutory meetings, and non-remittance of union dues and other third-party deductions.”
“Permit me at this point to give a rundown of the issues in the respective universities as follows: Lagos State University (LASU), Ojoo: In LASU, there has been a running battle against our union, which resulted in the victimisation of five leaders of the Union who have been sacked. Despite the submission of the Visitation Panel report more than two years ago, the State Government has refused to release and implement the White Paper.
“We hereby call on Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to direct the immediate reinstatement of the unjustly sacked colleagues. NEC has resolved to immediately reactivate sanctions imposed on LASU. For the avoidance of doubt, the Union has blacklisted LASU and directed its members to avoid any engagement in LASU, such as external examination, Visitation Panel, sabbatical, conference attendance, accreditation exercise, resource verification, and any form of collaboration,” he said.
Namo said that “120 of our members in Kogi State University, some of whom have died, have been illegally and unjustly sacked. It is sad to note that these members have neither been accused of any infringements nor convicted of any crime. We hereby call on the Kogi State Governor to recall these colleagues in the interest of justice and the progress of the University.”
In Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki, Namo said that there is an obvious lack of infrastructural development, erosion of the university’s autonomy by some political interests, and “our members are being victimised for speaking the truth to power by demanding that the owners and administrators of the University should live up to expectations. This has led to the unjustifiable suspension of the Chairperson of the Union and his predecessor. We demand their immediate recall.”
He said that in Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, there has also been a running battle between the State Government/University Administration and the Union, leading to the seizure of salaries of some of their members for many months, non-remittance of third-party deductions, and the autocratic running of the University using a Special Intervention Team (SIT), which is alien to the University laws.
At Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Namo said the Vice-Chancellor of FUTO “and her cohorts have continued to unjustly punish our faithful members at the Branch because of their patriotic stand against the illegal appointment/promotion of one Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami to the rank of Professor,” he said.
