Strike: ASUU Vows To Fight On... Says: "No-Work-No-Pay Rule Will Not Deter Us"

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared that no amount of threat through the implementation of no-work-no-pay rule applied by the federal government would force its members to suspend their four months old industrial action.

According to a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti State, yesterday by ASUU, Ilorin Zone and signed by its coordinator, Dr. Ayan Adeleke, the union said owners of private universities, who had allegedly been advising President Goodluck Jonathan to whip ASUU into line through no-work-no-pay rule, were doing so for selfish motives.

Adeleke said the threat against his members for their failure to suspend the strike would not deter it from fighting to a logical conclusion.

The body, who lashed out at those advising the president to apply the rule, which he described as ‘barbaric, obsolete and inhuman’, said no amount of pressure would dissuade the union from ensuring that the federal government implemented the agreements reached with the body in 2009.

Adeleke, who is the Chairman of the Ekiti State University chapter of ASUU, expressed displeasure at the federal government’s resort to blackmail to coerce ASUU to back-down on the struggle.

According to him, this would further fan the ember of acrimony between the body and the government.

He urged “people and organisations appealing to ASUU to call off the strike to first appeal to the federal government to implement the agreements freely entered into in 2009. to also prevail.”

The ASUU Chairman said the union was appealing to the President of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Yinka Gbadebo, to dissociate himself from ASUU’s strike.

He said the action was the least expected from a body the academic union was trying to protect.

Adeleke assured that ASUU would thwart the alleged efforts by some leaders and cabals, who are masquerading as proprietors of private universities to stifle the public universities to expand the scope of their business empires.

He said: “ASUU is fighting for the sustenance of the Nigerian universities so that half-baked graduates will not litter the labour market while the society will come back to blame their lecturers.

“We will not succumb to blackmail. We will remain focused and insist that the 2009 agreements be implemented,” he said.

EFCC Arrest University Students and Others For Stealing N2bn From Union Bank

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested two young men who claimed to be undergraduates of the University of Jos, Isaiah Friday and Azzaior Samuel, for an alleged N2.05bn fraud.

Two bureau de change operators, Salihu Mahmoud and Dan Ibrahim, were also arrested in connection with the alleged crime.

The suspects have been accused of being members of a syndicate that specialises in breaking into the computer data base of financial institutions to carry out dry posting of funds.

The Head, Media and Publicity, EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said the suspects were arrested in Lagos and Jos.

He said, “Their arrest comes on the heels of a petition which the commission received from Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Marina, Lagos, in January 2013, alleging that a criminal attack had been launched on its data base known as ‘Flexcube’, by yet-to-be-identified criminals who falsified the bank records and accounts and created unjustified huge opening balances in several accounts across the bank’s branches. They subsequently transferred funds from those accounts to several accounts in other banks.

The EFCC initial investigation showed that Friday, who was carrying out computer system maintenance services for one of the Union Bank branches in Jos, Plateau State, on a part-time basis, paved the way for the fraudsters to penetrate the bank’s database.

It was learnt that after the gang had succeeded in gaining access to the bank’s premises, it carried out the postings to six different company accounts domiciled in Union Bank’s Marina branch in Lagos.

Uwujaren said, “The accounts are Gona Bureau De Change Limited, Jaxmine Bureau De Change Limited, Dan Kawu Bureau De Change Limited, Godswill Great Communications, ZHG Services Limited and A and B Console Limited. The postings were carried out and the syndicate thereafter went to the bank to withdraw all the funds. Friday was paid as promised and other syndicate members now at large shared the remaining balance.”

The EFCC spokesman added that the commission had been able to recover $2,129,900 and another N134,542, from the fraudsters.

He said, “Other items recovered are furniture worth N10m from Salihu Liman’s one bedroom apartment in Yaba, Lagos; four vehicles, landed properties in Kano and Kaduna and a four-bedroom duplex worth N45m in Lagos.

Investigation into the scam continues.”

Students’ Peaceful Protest Turns Bloody in Asaba, Delta State as Police Open Fire

Peaceful protest organized by Nigeria Students Delta State over the continuous Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike turned out to be bloody as police were alleged to have fired both tear gas and gunshots at students to prevent them from protesting.

As a result, many of the students were alleged to have received various degree of injuries. 

A three hundred level student was allegedly seriously injured and is presently receiving treatment in an hospital.

Urhobotoday gathered that three of the students who were critically injured as a result of the police action are admitted in different hospitals.

“We embarked on the rally on the 22nd of August 2013 after writing to Delta State Commissioner of Police Mr Ikechukwu Aduba and Director of State Security (SSS) intimating them of our intention to go on a peaceful protest. To our dismay, the Nigeria police did everything possible to obstruct our effort by first of all arresting the Student Union President of Delta State University Abraka, Agboroli Joshua and other students on their way to Asaba along the expressway before the Asaba International Airport.

“After much trouble and intervention the arrested students were released. Despite the police' effort to obstruct our peaceful rally, we finally succeeded in conveying at summit junction where we intended moving on to the SSG’s office along Okpanam road by Zenith Bank where we wanted register our grievances to the government. It was at that point that police said we should not move further.
“One Mr Ifeanyi Emmanuel of the Nigeria police Asaba then ordered the police to shoot at harmless students who were going about their protest peacefully. He said the order to shoot at the students was an instruction from an ‘Oga at the Top’ whom he later identified as Delta State Commissioner of Police.

“In the course of the police shooting sporadically and firing canisters of tear gas, many students and even journalists sustained various degree of injuries with three students critically injured. They are presently receiving treatment at St. Joseph Hospital Asaba,” the student reported.

The students who alleged that the State Government did not show any interest about their plight, however appealed to the Inspector General of Police Mr Mohammed Abubakar to investigate the issues for them to get Justice.
Attempt for Urhobotoday to get police side of the story was however futile as Delta State Commissioner of Police Mr Ikechukwu Aduba and the State Police Public Relation Officer refused to pick our calls before going to press.

Source: Urhobotoday