4 ESUT Professors Get Query From ASUU for Sabotaging The Ongoing Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has queried four professors of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) for sabotaging its ongoing nationwide strike.

Chairman of ASUU-ESUT, Prof. Agu G. Agu, disclosed this while speaking with journalists in Enugu yesterday.

According to him, ASUU-ESUT had a very successful congress yesterday with almost half the population of its members present and they made it very clear that they still stand by the resolutions of the ASUU national executive on the strike.

On the purported resumption of academic activities in ESUT yesterday, he stated they were informed that some lecturers met with the management and sold the idea that they were representing ASUU and that was what caused the problem.

“We are in a meeting with the management and we have refuted that because we do not know them. We did not give them the mandate and everybody seems to be concerned about such a development and we have taken the necessary steps by issuing them with a query.

“Four professors are involved and we have issued them with queries and when they reply, we know the next action to take. We are forwarding the query to ASUU national, so that next time people should not arrogate to themselves what is not their duty. Nobody sent them. They don’t have the mandate of ASUU,” Agu said.

The ASUU-ESUT branch boss said the action of the erring professors was even very painful, seeing that it came after the death an illustrious fellow academic, Prof Festus Iyayi who died in the struggle.

Ban use of sirens on highways, ASUU tells FG

Following the death of the former ASUU president, Prof. Festus Iyayi, in an auto accident involving the convoy of Kogi State governor Captain Idris Wada, the union yesterday called for a ban on the use of sirens by government officials on Nigeria’s highways.

The union also urged government at all levels to declare state of emergency “to tackle the death traps that we call roads in this country.

A onetime chairman of the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) branch of ASUU, Dr Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju, made the call in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, while opening a condolence register.

The condolence register which was opened at the Kwara State Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) secretariat and at the office of the acting secretary of the union, Dr Kayode Afolayan, is for ease of accessibility to the public to register their condolences for the late former ASUU president, Prof Iyayi.

“The union also calls on government to see the tragic incident as a wake-up call on the issue of convoys, sirens and the parlous state of our roads. The convoys of governors are not meant to terrorise the governed whose taxes are used to buy the cars, pay the drivers and ensure their maintenance. Convoys should not convey or deliver death to the masses.

“We join our voices to that of the Lagos State governor who has constantly clamoured for a stop to the use of sirens to terrorise citizens. We call for a declaration of emergency to tackle the death traps that we call roads in this country. The carnage must stop,” he said.

NMA seek official inquiry into accident

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) yesterday called on the federal government to constitute an official inquiry into the road accident that claimed the life of Professor Iyayi.

Besides, it called on the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) to stop the reckless driving by convoys on Nigerian roads.

President of the association, Dr Osahon Enabulele, made this remarks shortly after he led a delegation of the association including the association’s secretary general, Dr Akpufuoma Pemu, the Edo State NMA branch chairman, Dr Emmanuel Ighodaro, a former president of NMA, Dr Dominic Osaghae, and others on a condolence visit to the family of Iyayi in Benin City in company of other leaders of the union.

“While we mourn the extremely sad and tragic death of this dogged and courageous fighter for socio-economic and political justice in Nigeria, and an unrepentant crusader for restoration of standards and excellence in university education, we are pained that his death followed another despicable act of recklessness and impunity by executive convoys.” he said.

Enabulele also called on the federal government to fast track repairs and complete the dualisation of the Abuja-Lokoja-Benin Highway

“We restate our call on governments at federal, state and local government levels to be more committed to the development of the transport system, particularly in terms of fixing and regularly maintaining the several bad roads and death traps that dot Nigeria’s highways and landscape,” he noted.