In a new twist to the ongoing legal tussle between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Court of Appeal has ordered the union to immediately call off its ongoing strike.
The National Industrial Court had last month, ordered ASUU to resume academic activities in public universities until the court rules on the case brought against it by the federal government.
The Court of Appeal delivered the ruling as a precondition for granting the ASUU’s request to appeal the ruling of the National Industrial Court.
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The court gave ASUU seven days to file an appeal to the ruling of the trial court, but it must first of all, obey the ruling of the lower court and call off the strike immediately pending the determination of the substantive suit.
The National Industrial Court on September 21, ordered ASUU to call off the strike following the suit brought before it by the federal government, asking it to order the striking lecturers and other members of the union back to the schools.
Among the provisions of the law that the federal government had asked the industrial court to determine is whether ASUU has the right to embark on strike over disputes as is the case in this instance. The court file said ASUU is compelling the Federal Government to employ its own University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) in the payment of the wages of its members as against the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) universally used by the Federal Government in the nation for payment of wages of all her employees in the Federal Government Public Service of which university workers including ASUU members are part of or even where the government via NITDA subjected ASUU and their counterpart UPPPS university payment platform system software to integrity test (vulnerability and stress test) and they failed.
The government had prayed the court to accelerate the hearing as the strike, which has lasted for eight months – crippling academic sessions in the public universities, has become a matter of national security.
The court granted the motion on notice filed by the federal government, urging the lecturers to return to classrooms. Ruling on the interlocutory injunction, the trial judge, Justice Polycarp Hamman, ordered ASUU to call off the industrial action pending the determination of the federal government’s suit against the union.
But ASUU appealed the ruling, praying for the stay of execution of the industrial court’s judgment until the determination of the case at the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, the federal government, in another move to quell the strike, had issued certificate of recognition to breakaway factions of ASUU. In response, the union had dragged the government to court.
However, given the judgment of the appellant court, ASUU is expected to return to the classrooms while it files an appeal to the industrial court ruling. That would be a huge win for the government. But ASUU is likely going to embark on a fresh industrial action as soon as it ends the current one.