ASUU to resume strike as FG fails toimplement the 2019 agreement

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has threatened to go on strike because the Federal Government had not shown commitment to carrying out the 2019 Memorandum of Action.

OAU breaks away from ASUU

The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has pulled out of the national body. The branch has consequently formed a new union.

ASUU Strike: University Of Ibadan Terminates First Semester

Following ongoing Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, strike, the University of Ibadan, UI, has terminated the first semester, shifting activities left in the semester, especially examination, to second semester. According to the University, whatever was left in first semester examination will hold in second semester, to bridge the time wasted. It was gathered that students mostly affected by the decision were those under the institution’s Open Distance Learning, ODL, centre.

ASUU Threatens Nationwide Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on a nationwide strike to press home its demands for the implementation of its 2009 agreement with the Federal Government. The ASUU Lagos Zone Coordinator, Prof. Olusoji Sowande, said this at a news conference yesterday in Lagos. Sowande said that the union was planning to toe this part after several efforts to ensure that the government address the pending demands, proved abortive.

Beware! Next ASUU Strike! [MUST READ]ð

Ululations over the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, calling off its five-month-old strike have overtaken the damage the long-drawn dispute has done to education.
How do we ensure that in the new year, another ASUU strike does not occur?
What appears to be important is the fact that the lecturers are returning to the classrooms. Government is relieved that it has stopped the embarrassing headlines of universities that have lost five months of academic activities while haggling over a 2009 agreement.




How important is education to the authorities? How would the lost learning time be recovered? What is the quality of certificates the students would obtain after the long absence from school?
ASUU's refusal to call off the strike until government produced proof of depositing the money to meet its demands in the Central Bank is another chapter in government's relations with ASUU. Other labour unions would adopt the same measures in resolving own issues.
Government has failed to gain the trust of labour unions. When the Academic Staff Union Polytechnics, ASUP, went on strike, government did not speak to the union for three months. The issue remains partially resolved. Governments sign agreements with no intention of keeping them. The disputed 2009 agreement is due for re-negotiation, yet it has not been implemented.
Our governments should change their policies of planning for immediate needs. ASUU is not the only labour union in education. Its strike that took so long to resolve is not the major challenge education faces.
At the foundational levels, challenges with number and quality of teachers, teaching aids, classroom space, learning environment, and curriculum persist. The thinking that once the universities are open, education is on the proper ken is deceptive. Higher education is at most vacuous when foundations at the primary and secondary school levels are ignored.
Governments urgently need to address these issues as well as the bureaucracies in education. They are wasteful; savings from emerging them could release funds for core education.
What are governments' plans beyond depositing N200 billion to end the ASUU strike?
How would they tackle sustainable funding to stem another wave of strikes next year? Would governments ever consider education important enough that it should run without disruptions?
Thousands of conferences held annually on the future of education are mere talk sessions that hardly improve education. When will the changes be made? Do governments require strikes to realise the importance of education? What are governments' plans for education?
Unions, which always consider the welfare of their members as a first charge, cannot determine the future of education. Governments should provide sustainable means for funding education, not to avoid strikes, but to underline the importance of education.
Vanguard

And It's A Wrap! ASUU Ends 5 Month Old Strike

Information reaching OCB from Minna, Niger State capital, indicates that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has called off its five months strike.

The Union arrived at the latest decision to suspends its strike after a marathon meeting held at the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, Niger State on Monday.

After a protracted debate, the Federal Government and ASUU reached a compromise during a negotiation brokered by the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar few days ago.

More details coming.....keep reloading.

ASUU Goes To War With Federal Government Again

Who blinks first as we enter the second deadline given by the Federal Government to ASUU?

As at Sunday morning, it remains uncertain whether the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities would call off its five-month-old strike, despite the Government's Monday ultimatum. There were speculations that the university lecturers would suspend the strike after the burial ceremony for their ex-President, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who was killed in an accident involving Kogi State governor's convoy.
But credible sources inside ASUU say government is yet to meet all their demands, strike continues...

The Chairman, ASUU, University of Benin, Dr. Tony Monye-Emina said, "The strike has not been called off. The authority (of the institution) is following government's directive; we are not shifting our stand. It is not a local strike.
"It is not true we are calling off the strike. How can we be holding a meeting tonight? The burial is going on and it continues tomorrow (today)."

Also, ASUU in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, vowed not to obey government's order that lecturers should return to classroom on Monday. The Chairman, ASUU, OOU chapter, Dr. Nasir Adesola said the lecturers would not succumb to threats by government to sack them.
Adesola, who is also the South-West Coordinator, ASUU, stressed that since the lecturers did not go on strike in the first instance because of government, they would not return to work by coercion from government.

He stated that the lecturers would only go back to the classroom when the government meet their demands.
"We didn't go on strike because of government order. The reasons for which we embarked on the strike have not been discharged by the government. Those orders of government are just part of executive recklessness. We are not returning to work on Monday," Adesola told Punch.

Similarly, the ASUU Chairman in Enugu State University of Technology, Prof. Gab Agu, said lecturers would not resume on Monday. He said it was a rumour that the union would call of the strike. He stated that the National Executive Council of ASUU would meet and agree before the strike could be called off.

Same with ASUU in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where the Chairman, Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, said only the ASUU NEC could announce the suspension of the strike.

Must Read: Is It True That Former ASUU President Died In A Car Accident? How Come Bullet Holes In His Body?

The nature of two holes on the late Professor Festus Iyayi's body gives life to suspicions by his colleagues that he may have been shot

Along with grief, anger will be the dominant emotion when Professor Festus Iyayi is buried this week in his hometown, Ugbegun in Edo State. The two feelings have mixed, predictably with unsavoury outcomes, since the former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, died on 12 November in an auto accident on the Lokoja-Abuja Expressway. Iyayi was travelling to Kano in the company of three other ASUU members for a meeting on the ongoing strike by members of the union when a police escort van in the convoy of the Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State rammed into the bus the university teachers were travelling. Iyayi died instantly, while three his colleagues were seriously injured.

Wada, who was severely injured in an accident involving his convoy last year, was widely criticised by ASUU and the wider public for his failure to learn from his own experience and for allegedly failing to stop to assist the victims.
The escort vehicle was said to have veered off from its lane to hit the bus bearing the ASUU members, a claim the Kogi State government denied.
The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, called for an official inquiry into Iyayi's death and urged the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, to curb the recklessness of official convoys.

The FRSC also got a slice of the criticisms, following an accusation that it was shielding the driver of the vehicle that smashed into the bus conveying Iyayi and his colleagues.
One week after, ASUU dismissed the view that Iyayi's death was accidental and forcefully contested the official claim that his heart was pierced by a strange object at the accident scene. The association pointedly blamed the death on the government and "its agents". In a statement issued by the University of Benin chapter of the union, ASUU said Iyayi did not die in an accident, but was "wilfully" murdered.

The union said it will demand concrete answers from the government for the alleged murder. It demanded that an autopsy be performed on Iyayi's corpse and warned government officials to stay away from the burial.
"His burial should not be an avenue for government officials to score cheap political points, as we will resist any state involvement in the burial," the union raved. Civil society groups in Edo State also demanded an inquiry into Iyayi's death.

Was Iyayi murdered? ASUU believes it has what constitutes prima facie evidence to support its suspicion. Members of the union point to two holes, one in the chest and another in the back, as offering a less than complicated indication that Iyayi was shot. Photographs of Iyayi's corpse obtained by this magazine, show holes that look like entry and exit bullet holes.

The Joint Action Front, JAF, a coalition of labour organisations, accused the government of masterminding Iyayi's murder. A statement signed by its president, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, said the circumstances of Iyayi's death are questionable.
The group believes that Iyayi was allegedly murdered to destabilise ASUU.

"We strongly believe that the assassination of Comrade Iyayi was carried out by expert shooters in the cover of the Nigerian intelligence, reminiscent of the state murder of Dele Giwa in 1986 and Kudirat Abiola in 1996," the statement said.
Another on his back
JAF also alleged that the statement of Dr. Paul Amodu of the Specialist Hospital in Lokoja, where Iyayi was rushed to, did not adequately explain the piercing of Iyayi's heart by a strange object.

Dr. Sylvester Akhaine, a Political Science lecturer at the University of Lagos, is similarly persuaded. Akhaine alleged that the accident was invented as a cover for the murder because ASUU's struggles have made the government hot under the collar. He argued that there was nothing at the accident scene that could have drilled holes in Iyayi's body. When told the coroner's inquest did not support his claims, Akhaine retorted: "The coroner's report is not the result of an autopsy. Until an autopsy is done, you cannot say anything to the contrary."

Writing in THE NATION, Dr. Ropo Sekoni, a retired teacher of Comparative Literature, branded as incompetent Amodu's claim that the piercing of Iyayi's heart must have been responsible for his death. "What is this medical talk designed to achieve, a science-driven identification of etiology of death? Did Dr. Amodu's observations derive from the result of a post-mortem examination?" Shekoni asked.
Dr. Ngozi Ilo and Dr. Sunny Iyalo, ASUU National Welfare Officer and Zonal Coordinator respectively, who travelled with the deceased, also disputed the claim that a metal object at the scene of the accident was responsible for the holes on Iyayi's body.

But how closely do the holes on Iyayi's body resemble those made by bullets, especially given that the one on the chest looks big? A retired army colonel told TheNEWS that the holes have a high degree of consistency with those made by bullets. "There is a 70 per cent probability that the man was murdered and 30 per cent that it was an accident," he said. If it was an accident, he argued, the impact would have caused a squeeze, not neatly drilled holes. He explained that a close-range shot from a pistol would cause the bullet to enter an object, as it allegedly did Iyayi, and exit through the back. "The big hole in the chest shows that it was a pistol.

This is because the wound a pistol creates is bigger at the entrance and smaller at the exit. But if it was a Kalashnikov (AK47), it would be smaller at the entrance and bigger at the exit," he further explained. The retired officer added that AK47 bullets gather momentum as they hit target, unlike pistol bullets, which create bigger impact at the point of entry.
"There is the possibility of shooting in the confusion of the accident or that the accident could have been contrived to cover up shots," the retired colonel told this magazine.

But did any of the survivors hear a shot before or after the crash? Not exactly, but they are not ruling out the possibility that a gun may have gone off on account of the impact created by the collision. This is because in all likelihood, the vehicle responsible for the accident had heavily armed passengers. "I heard the two vehicles collide. But given that it was a police vehicle, it is possible that, as we usually notice, cops in the escort vehicles of governors are always armed. So, anything could have happened on impact," reasoned Anthony Monye-Emima, Chairman, University of Benin ASUU branch. If that was what happened, could Iyayi's death be described as anything but accidental? Obviously not.

Lawyer and former university teacher, Professor Itse Sagay, urged caution. Sagay, who was sacked alongside Iyayi from the University of Benin by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida in 1987, said: "Nobody can pinpoint exactly what was responsible for the injury (the hole in the chest), which I believe killed him. There was no piece of iron or sharp-edged object found that could have done it. I believe the only solution to the problem is to have a very thorough autopsy to determine the cause of death and from there, one can then begin to build on what possibly could be responsible for his death."
Sagay added that since there is no doubt that Iyayi's death was caused by somebody in Governor Wada's convoy, a case of murder or at the minimum, manslaughter, could be established.

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, ascribed Iyayi's death to criminal negligence and executive recklessness. Abdulwaheed Omar, NLC President, said the organisation will petition the National Human Rights Commission should the federal and Kogi State governments refuse to take responsibility for Iyayi's death.
Gathered From PmNews

BREAKING!! ASUU Will Suspend Strike Within 24 Hours (READ)

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said they would suspend strike within 24 hours once the resolutions reached with President Goodluck Jonathan on November 4 were accepted, which ought to be today.
The Union, however, described the statement credited to the Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, that ASUU was making new outrageous demands as "untrue and absolute lie".

ASUU's position was made known by the National Treasurer, Dr. Ademola Aremu, in an interview with The Nation in Ibadan on Wednesday.
The Union said it asked Jonathan to facilitate the endorsement of resolutions reached with him and signed by high ranking government official preferably the Attorney-General of the Federation but not a Permanent Secretary.
ASUU said their representative of the body, including the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulwahid Omar, would stand as witnesses.

Aremu also said the striking lecturers wanted the N200 billion agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation fund for public universities to be warehoused with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed to the benefiting universities.
He noted that ASUU appreciated the intervention of the President, but then added that some of the resolutions reached with Jonathan were not included in the letter sent to the Union.
According to him, the supervising Minister of Education forgot to mention that apart from the N30 billion earned allowances released for university staff, the FG was yet to release N100 billion claimed to have been released.

Suspend ASUU Strike in Honour of Iyayi-Bob Effiong

The Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Board of the University of Benin, Senator Bob Effiong, has appealed to the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off their almost five-month old strike in honour of Professor Festus Iyayi.

Iyayi, a renowned author, the Head of Business Administration Department at the same University and former National President of ASUU died in an auto crash while on his way to attend a meeting of the ASUU National Executive Committee (NEC) in Kano.

Effiong said Iyayi's death was particularly painful as the meeting was intended to seek a resolution to the lingering impasse which has caused hardship to students and their parents for long.

Speaking when he paid a condolence visit to Iyayi's family in Benin-City, yesterday, the Chairman also called on the union to institute an academic foundation in honour of Iyayi for his immense contributions to Nigeria's education sector.
"…it is expedient at this point for both the federal government and ASUU to come to an understanding in honour of this great patriot," Effiong said in his condolence message.

The condolence message reads in part: "When we take into cognizance his immense contributions to ASUU in its quest to reposition Nigerian universities in the world and his role as a teacher and scholar, we know that the academia has lost a rare gem that would be difficult to replace.
"However, we want to console you to bear the loss with fortitude resting in the knowledge that Professor Iyayi gave his life in the struggle to ensure a better and brighter future for the Nigerian child in terms of sound education."

ASUU, University, Battle Over Resumption Date

The striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko chapter, Ondo State and the university authorities are on a collision course over a directive that the students should resume for lectures.

Gates to the nation's public universities have been shut in the last 144 days due to trade dispute between ASUU and the Federal Government
Registrar of the state-owned university, R. B. Olotu in a statement in Akure directed the students to resume on Monday, November 25 for the second semester 2012/2013 session.
But in a swift reaction, the ASUU Chapter of the university dissociated itself from the purported resumption of academic activities in the university.

The Chapter's chairperson, Busuyi Mekusi in a statement asked members to disregard the directive.
Mekusi said: "ASUU Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko Branch, wishes to dissociate itself from the purported resumption of academic activities in the university, as its members are still part of the ongoing national strike by the union.
"Members should, therefore, disregard any pull to abandon the struggle, and be steadfast until the present position is reviewed by NEC.

" The union also wants to make it abundantly clear that it would resist every tyrannical propensity to intimidate and harass its members."
The Registrar in his statement entitled: 'Resumption for the 2nd semester 2012/2013 session' directed all the students of university to resume.

"All the students of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, are hereby informed that academic activities of the second semester of 2012/2013 session truncated as a result of the ASUU national strike are to resume on Monday, 25th November, 2013 with the continuation of registration on the University portal ( http://portal.aaua.edu.ng).

"Lectures are to start on Monday, 2nd December, 2013
It will be recalled that the Vice Chancellor of the University Prof. Femi Mimiko had about a month ago expressed worries over the continued closure of the university by Ondo State.
Prof. Mimiko threatened that he would recall the students if the four month old strike action was not suspended.

SAharaReporters: Festus Iyayi Was Shot By Policemen In Kogi Governor's Convoy

Good morning OCBreaders, it will interest you to know that an informant who confided in Sahara Reporters said that Festus Iyayi, a former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), was actually shot by policemen in the convoy of the Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada, prior to the road accident in which he supposedly died last week.

The source claimed that the injuries found on the late writer's chest were consistent with gunshot injuries and that a bullet did pierce his heart.

One Dr. Paul Amodu of the Specialist Hospital in
Lokoja had revealed that Professor Iyayi died
after "something" pierced his chest, but he didn't specify what it was.

SaharaReporters was first to reveal last week said the popular professor and writer died in a
collision with a security vehicle in Governor
Wada's convoy.

Sources at ASUU said they had dissuaded Iyayi's family from a "rushed" burial, as they suspected foul play. One of the sources recalled that another former president of ASUU, Dr. Mahmood Tukur, also died in suspicious circumstances on the Kaduna-Zaria highway, with the police claiming he died of an asthma attack because he ate pepper which, they claimed, triggered it.

SaharaReporters spoke with Prof. Iyayi's son,
Omole, regarding the latest information, but he
said the family was unaware, and that they do not even have the autopsy performed yet.

A press statement issued by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA)signed by its President Osahom Enabulele has previously called for a special inquiry into Professor Iyayi's death but the statement didn't say if the doctors found that Iyayi may been shot as alleged by the anonymous

SaharaReporters

TRAGIC: Former ASUU President Dies In Car Accident

The ongoing strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has claimed its biggest casualty, as the renowned writer, university teacher and activist Dr. Festus Iyayi and FORMER ASUU PRESIDENT died in a road accident on his way to the national congress of ASUU in Kano.

The President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, confirmed his death to the reporters. He said the sad news was broken to the union in the morning of November 12, 2013, Tuesday.

The professor died on a failed portion of a Nigerian highway around Lokoja in Kogi state, according to ASUU.

He was born in 1947, in Ugbegun, Ishan, Edo State.

In 1968, he left the shores of Nigeria to pursue his higher education, obtaining a M.Sc in Industrial Economics from the Kiev Institute of Economics, in the former U.S.S.R., and then his Ph.D from the University of Bradford, England.

In 1980, he went back to Benin and became a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration at the University of Benin.

A well known author, with four books to his credit (Violence, The Contract, Heroes, and Awaiting Court Martial), Dr. Iyayi won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature for his book Heroes in 1988.

In his writing, Dr. Festus Iyayi used to have a tough and even radical stance on social and political issues.

He was the President of ASUU from 1986, but in 1988 the union was briefly banned and Iyayai was detained.

More to follow...


May his soul Rest In Peace.

We Will Continue Our Strike Even After President’s Directive – UNIJOS Chapter Of ASUU

The University of Jos chapter of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) has said it will not surrender, even if the receives the directive of the National President of the Union.

Dr. David Janakam, the Chairman of the UNIJOS chapter, stated this in an interview in the capital city of Plateau State – Jos.

“The National President of ASUU cannot ask us to call off just because the Union has met with Mr. President. We don’t operate that way. Whatever agreement reached between the national body and Mr. President will be a subject of discussion at local branches.

“We can only call it off when the local branches give their acceptance to whatever agreement reached with the Federal Government in their last meeting with President Jonathan.

Dr. Janakam said ASUU members have lost confidence in the Federal Government when it comes to agreement based on the lesson learnt from the current strike adding that the minutes of the last meeting with President Jonathan will be critically reviewed.

“If the local branches do not see any seriousness in the contents of that meeting, we will let our national body know of our opinion accordingly. If our response is positive, only then the national body can announce that we have agreed to resume classes.


“So, as far as this strike is concerned, it is the members of ASUU nationwide that can determine the end of the strike, not the National President. Leaders of various chapters of ASUU cannot take decision on behalf of their members in this case. It is the members themselves that should say it is time to call off. So it is not a leadership thing” said Dr. Jankam.

“I’m just coming back from Abuja where that National President and zonal chairmen briefed us chairmen of local chapters on their dialogue with Mr. President. Back home we will converge in our congress to discuss the issues. Whatever resolution reached in our congress will be made known to our national body.

“This is going to be the processes for calling off of this strike. That was why I said this strike cannot be called off with directive of ASUU President. It has to be the other way round”.

He said the congress of the UNIJOS ASUU chapter has been scheduled for Monday next week.

At Last! ASUU Gets A Better Deal of N1.1trillion From Jonathan

Details of the Monday/Tuesday marathon meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have begun to emerge.

“The meeting should be the longest that we have ever had on this crisis but I can tell you that both parties were frank all through the discussions. 

“The parties also showed commitment towards ending the crisis. The President in particular showed that he was serious about ending the strike and that was why he offered to release over N1tn to the universities in the next five years."

Punch gathered on Tuesday evening that a key component of the agreement reached by the parties was that the Federal Government would inject N1.1tn into public universities in the next five years.

A reliable source, who made this known, also hinted that the strike would be called off anytime next week.

He said the government team which was led by President Goodluck Jonathan would release N220bn yearly into the sector beginning from 2014.

The source added, “The money will be released on a yearly basis at N220bn per annum beginning from 2014. For the outgoing year, the government will only release N100bn and this has been processed.”

He said that the government, in order to show its commitment to a fresh pact, accepted that “the fund (N1.1tn) should domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria”

“The money will be released on a quarterly basis to the universities. So, there won’t be any problem about funding the deal,” the source said.

The National Universities Commission and the Trade Union Congress, according to him, are  joint guarantors of the agreement while the Minister of Education will be the implementation officer.

The source said that the government agreed among other things, to revamp the public universities by ensuring that all those issues that always led to strike were dealt with once and for all.

It was learnt that the negotiating team of ASUU led by Dr. Nassir Faggae met on Tuesday to further deliberate on the deal.

Ope Careem gathered the ASUU team have reached an agreement to take the deal offered by Jonathan and that they will meet the larger ASUU caucus by weekend to agree and end the strike.

#SolidarityForever

UniJos Undergraduates Steal N2B Electronically From Union Bank

Officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested two young men identified as Isaiah Friday and Azzaior Samuel for allegedly defrauding a bank the sum of N2.05b. The suspects who claimed to be undergraduates of the University of Jos and two bureau de change operators, Salihu Mahmoud and Dan Ibrahim, connived to commit the criminal act.The suspects were also accused of being members of a syndicate that specialised in breaking into thecomputer 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. 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 petition, which was signed by one A.F Olufade, Head of Fraud Investigation at the bank, said cash withdrawals and electronic transfers totalling N2.05bn was involved in the scam. It was learnt that 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. Uwujaren said, Friday was traced and arrested. His arrest led to the arrest of Azaaior Samuel. Investigations further revealed that Samuel introduced Friday to Mahmoud, who is the mastermind of the fraud with others now at large. Mahmoud and other collaborators told Friday that they needed access to the bank’s database in order to carry out some postings. They promised to give Friday N.5m if the deal succeeded. Friday agreed. On the day the crime was committed, he told people at the bank that Samuel was his colleague who had accompanied him to work. 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. 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. 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…

ASUU Strike, cause of Increase in Crime Rate-NANS

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has linked the rising wave of crime in the last two months to the idleness of students, who are currently bearing the brunt of the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The students’ body, therefore, appealed to the striking union and the federal government to resume negotiations and ensure quick resolution of the strike, which is now in its 13th week. The acting Senate President of NANS, Mr. John Shima, while addressing a press conference in Abuja Monday, lamented that about three years of study time had been lost to strikes in the last 10 years. The lost time, he said, was enough to graduate from an undergraduate course in other climes. “ASUU and the federal government should go back to the negotiating table. Even after wars, issues are resolved at the round table, Nigerian students are tired of sitting at home,” he said. Shima added that although the lecturers were protesting the decline of infrastructure in the nation’s universities, the decline was not limited to the universities alone. This, he said, had led to the continual drop in Nigeria’s standard of tertiary education. “We call for a NEEDS Assessment in our polytechnics and Colleges of Education as was done for the universities to ascertain their level of decay. This may also stop unions in these institutions from embarking on their own strikes,” he said. The students’ body appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to urgently appoint a substantive minister to head the education ministry. The candidate, it added, should be an individual from the education sector, who had exhibited the necessary competence, clear understanding of the sector and has the capacity to command the respect of stakeholder unions in the sector. “We commend the out-gone education minister, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufa’i, for doing her best while she served as minister,” Shima said. However, a mild drama ensued at the press briefing, which had to be truncated after a young man who claimed to be NANS Public Relations Officer, Olaogun Victor, interrupted the proceedings on the grounds that his presence was not acknowledged. A group of young men also protested that the press briefing was being done without their knowledge. Meanwhile, the Ogun State chapter of ASUU and the civil society group have concluded plans to stage a mass protest on Thursday in Abeokuta, the state capital, over the lingering strike. Addressing journalists in Abeokuta yesterday, the Secretary of Joint Action Front (JAF), the pro-labour civil society component of the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO), Mr. Abiodun Aremu, said JAF was committed to the nationwide, zonal and state protests until the government was compelled to give public education the priority attention it deserves. According to him, governments at all levels in the country operate anti-poor policies, saying this was clearly expressed in their lack of disposition to public education. He said: “Funding of Public Education is not given the proper priority it deserves, because the children of those in governments and their friends are being trained in private schools in Nigeria and foreign countries with the looted public funds.” He, therefore, said government should be blamed for all the crises in the education sector, including the incessant strikes, stressing that: “the unions in education sector are not making fresh demands.” He said: “They are on strike because government failed to implement agreements they freely entered into and signed with the unions. For example, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has been on a number of strikes since 2009 because government failed to implement the Teacher Special Scale (TSS) that was a product of agreement with government in 1992.” Aremu noted that the deplorable state of tertiary institutions across the country was such that they were near total collapse except there was urgent intervention. He said: “As at date, JAF makes bold to state that the federal government has refused to implement the agreement, whose funding component ought to have been concluded in 2011. Instead, the federal government tries to smartly cover up and deceive the public, in the guise of government’s being broke and provide N100 billion out of the agreed N1.518trillion. “The other N30 billion the federal government said it has also approved is said to be for the earned allowances of N92 billion it owed. This is the fallacy of the N130 billion the federal government claimed it has approved for immediate release,” he added. Source:thisday