The Minister of Education, Mr Ibrahim Shekarau has said that the threatened strike by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) has been suspended.
But the union on its part said its National Executive Committee would say “whether the strike has been called off or not”.
Speaking after a meeting with the Union’s leadership and House of Representatives Committee on Education, Mr Shekarau assured the Union that the Federal Government would look into their demands.
“We have reached some conclusion and the matter is over,” he said, adding that “we have reached a very far reaching understanding and the conclusion is that we won’t have the expected strike”.
He further noted that the Federal Government had already “directed the Ministry (of Education)” to withdraw a letter suspending the payment of the CONTISS 15 salaries” and “has brought to an end the strike before the deadline.
“I am sure there will not be anything like strike because we have reached a conclusion,” he maintained.
The Chairman of the ASUP, Mr Chibuzo Asomugha, also speaking after the meeting, however, said he was not in the position to decide on whether or not the Union had suspended the strike, maintaining that “when you are in an ultimatum and you have discussions, then you must call the National Executive Committee (NEC) to brief them, so that they can take a decision on the strike”.
“It is only NEC that has the constitutional power to say whether the strike is called off or suspended,” he said.
He further noted that “the Union would ride on the assurances given by the Minister of Education and House Committee on Education until we hold our next NEC meeting in March”. “Up until then, we will ask our members to continue to work,” Mr Asomugha said.
ASUP had threatened to embark on an indefinite strike on Wednesday, February 25, if government failed to meet their demands.
Mr Asomugha told journalists during a press briefing in Abuja that the government had not implemented any of their demands since the suspension of the last strike embarked upon by the Union in July last year.
