Ebonyi Governor Recalls Suspended Lecturers

The Ebonyi State governor, David Umahi, has recalled two suspended members of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ebonyi state chapter.
It came as the union called off its strike, embarked upon on Monday.

The suspension of the strike and lifting of the suspension followed the intervention of ASUU South East regional leadership which brokered peace between the government and the union.
Idenyi Ndubuisi, who is the chairman of the Union and his predecessor, Emeka Nwakpa, had on Monday led a delegation to meet the governor to discuss their agitations.

On Tuesday, they briefed their members on the outcome of their meeting.
But their members did not accept the terms by the government and chose to continue with the strike.
The governor lambasted the two professors and accused them of politicising the strike.
He also accused them of misinforming the lcturers on the outcome of their meeting which he termed gross misconduct. He suspended the two lecturers.

But ASUU national executive ordered the zonal leadership to intervene and they brought both parties to the negotiation table where a truce was brokered leading to the governor lifting the suspension and the union calling off the strike.
Reacting to the latest development, Mr. Idenyi commended the state governor for recalling him and his predecessor.
He said the leadership of ASUU in the state was not intimidated by the state government as was being speculated.

He commended the zonal leadership of ASUU for intervening in the crisis.
The Commissioner for Education, John Ekeh, said the suspension was imposed because the lecturers misinformed their colleagues.
“We appealed to the governor to temper justice with mercy and the suspension was lifted because we are not fighting a war,” he said.

“The area government conceded to ASUU is the area of the law of the university. The first law that established the university granted four-year tenure or twice.
“But the new law is talking about five-year single tenure but somebody that was appointed with the former law is trying to benefit from the new law and there are no clauses that tie the two. And we are saying that somebody that was appointed for four years based on the old law should not benefit from the new law.

“ASUU does not have any good argument. Do you know how much we lose in a day because of the strike? Even on the issue of tax, we said any area that was not done well we will refund back,” he said.

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