Akwa Ibom Varsity Workers Give Govt 7-Day Strike Notice

Barring last minute intervention by the state government, academic and non academic activities at the Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) will be grounded from Monday, March 11, 2024, LEADERSHIP learnt yesterday.

This followed a resolution reached by a coalition of workers’ unions in the institution under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee (JAC).

Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) chairman, Comrade Mefiok Umanah; Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) chairman, Comrade Emmanuel Okon and chairman, National Association of Academic Technologists (NAATs), in a communique at the end of their emergency meeting, directed all workers to embark on sit – at – home protest from Monday.

According to them, it became expedient to call out their members to resume the industrial action shelved a couple of weeks ago, following government’s intervention with assurances that the core areas of grievances bothering on workers’ welfare and repositioning of teaching and learning infrastructures in the school would be addressed.

They, therefore, directed that the two campuses including the main campus at Ikot Akpaden in Mkpat Enin local government area and Obio Akpa, in Abak LGA, be shut until the agreement reached with Governor Umo Eno, to implement their demands are met.

“The state Governor, Umo Eno had on the 7th of February, 2024, intervened in the strike and approved payment of 2023 leave grant, 2023 13th month salary, payment of palliatives of 2023, as well as approved the constitution of the Governing Council which were the issues in contention at the time,” they said.