ASUU: Workers stage NLC solidarity protest in Ilorin

Workers in Kwara State on Tuesday joined their colleagues across Nigeria to stage a solidarity protest to put an end to the lingering Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.

MOUTHPIECE NGR recalls that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had ordered workers across the federation to embark on a two-day nationwide protest.

This was in respect of the ongoing industrial strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Workers in Osun State on Tuesday joined the protest to express their grievance.

The demonstration took off from the Labour House, of the Kwara State council of the Nigeria Labour Congress, High Court premises of Ilorin.

The demonstrators have moved round some major streets of the metropolis.

The second leg of the demonstration has been scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday.

Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Kwara State, Issa Ore, revealed that the labour union will announce a 3-day strike should the federal government does not to meet the demands of the protesting university lecturers.

He expressed concern that the strike action had made students in public universities idle while the resultant effect was being felt in the upsurge in crimes believed to be perpetrated mostly by the youths.

The union lamented the failure of the federal government to honour the agreement between it and the aggrieved university workers, which had caused the protracted strike.

Speaking on behalf of the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and their non-academic counterparts, the ASUU Chairman of Kwara State University, KWASU, Malete, Dr.Sheu Abdulganiy Salau, said they are fighting against the rots in the university system for the future of the Nigerian students.

The protesters called on the Nigerian government to attend to the needs of the striking university workers and allow the university system run seemlessly.

Meanwhile, Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Labour, Comrade Abdulmumeen Onagun, while addressing the members of the union promised to deliver the letter of the union accordingly adding that the governor was in support of the struggle.

It would be recalled that the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) had embarked on industrial action after the failure of the federal government to meet their demands for improved welfare and infrastructure in public universities among others.

DP