Akwa Ibom CoE Reinstates 4 Suspended Lecturers

After about two months of feud between the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COASU) of the College of Education (CoE) Afaha Nsit in Nsit Ibom local government area of Akwa Ibom State and the school management over entitlement, leading to the suspension of four lecturers, agreement has been reached to resolve the matter and the lecturers reinstated.

This followed intervention by the State House of Assembly Committee on Education chaired by Obong Godwin Ekpo, the member representing Ibiono Ibom state constituency.

Addressing the forum, Ekpo said: “We are meeting today (yesterday) to resolve the lingering  issues of the College of Education, Afaha Nsit and this is third meeting, which is the final day for this proceedings, and we will resolve this problem once and for all.

“This matter stands resolved and we believe that on the final meeting on 24th of August 2022, we will receive a letter from the College of Education, Afaha Nsit, stating that this matter was resolved on the 23rd August 2022 as we have jointly agreed today”, he assured.

The chairman of the governing council of the college,  Abia, had stated that the crises would be resolved as they had earlier agreed to meet on the 23rd of August 2022, on the issue and directed that the erring suspended staff would have to apologise to management at the proposed meeting before the lifting of their suspensions.

“Even at that, we expect the House Committee on Education to whisper to the suspended workers to come before the Governing Council on the 23rd August, 2022, to formally show their remorse concerning their actions,” he added.

The commissioner for education, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet, who was represented by the permanent secretary, Mrs Rose Bassey, thanked the House Committee on Education for the intervention and pledged to report the progress to the commissioner.

The chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Akwa Ibom State chapter, Comrade Sunny James commended the intervention by the committee and expressed satisfaction that the matter has been settled amicably.

The chairman of COEASU, who tendered apology on behalf of the four suspended workers, however called on management to “always dialogue with union members to avoid misunderstandings”.