ASUU STRIKE UPDATE: Police disrupt ASUU solidarity rally in Bayelsa ...Read more

Solidarity rally of striking lecturers and Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) at the state-owned Niger Delta University, Amassoma, has been scuttled by the Bayelsa State police command.

Branch Chairman of ASUU in NDU, Dr Beke Sese, disclosed this to journalists in Yenagoa, during a prayer session at the Law Faculty of the university, saying the union had  sought for permission from the police authorities in the state on the rally but it was not approved.

Investigations revealed that  the Chief Security Officer to Governor Seriake Dickson, on Tuesday, invited the ASUU chairman to the Government House where he  warned against the botched rally by the union.

Sese said the union decided to convert the rally into a prayer session hoping that God would  intervene in the national strike of ASUU to enable the Federal Government to implement the 2009 agreement signed between it  and ASUU.

They prayed that the enemies of education should retrace their steps to enable sanity to return to the university system.

The placard-carrying lecturers insisted that  the Federal Government should implement the 2009 agreement  signed with ASUU which offered a veritable roadmap towards reversing the decay in the university system.

Some of the placards displayed by the lecturers read: “Can your child afford to go to Ghana and Malaysia universities?If no, then join ASUU to better the university system,” “Government save our universities, “Support ASUU help your child,” “Help the poor, educate your child,” “Not every child can go to Ghana to study,” “We must stop the movement of students to abroad” and “Agreement is agreement.”

He said: “ASUU has, over the years, consistently engaged successive governments through dialogue and avoidable strike actions to compel the political leadership to arrest and reverse the rot in the university system.The leadership of our union has been in several talks with the Federal Government over a possible peaceful resolution of this present crisis but it is quite disheartening that the government has refused to show the necessary commitment and sincerity in its self-proclaimed effort to address our demands.”

“Rather than honour an agreement, it freely entered into our union and after several months of negotiation,government has resorted to arbitrary imposition of money by the purported disbursement of N100 billion to address the funding requirements of some universities.”