‘FG deploying hunger on our members to enroll in IPPIS platform’ – ASUU

…Says private varsities recruiting their members 

The Benin Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), yesterday said the Federal Government was using hunger to compel its members to enroll in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

In a statement issued in Benin City by the Union’s Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Fred Esumeh, the union said that since the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has been talking like a spoiler and anti-ASUU agent rather than a conciliator.

It expressed doubt over Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Ngige’s capacity and commitment to resolve the issues that led to the on-going strike in the country’s tertiary institutions, due to Ngige’s approach in handling the strike, which it said, might not end any time soon.

ASUU also alleged that the Federal Government, represented by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, Ngige and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) of deploying hunger to coerce its members to enroll on the IPPIS platform.

The union added that this move of government smacks of impunity and it is undemocratic in a democratic setting and therefore, urged Ngige to calm frayed nerves of its members and facilitate the payment of their salaries instead of playing to the gallery and violating the laws of the land, especially as they affect university education.

This is coming as the ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, has said that the union is losing its members to private universities due to the inability of the Federal Government to meet its demands.

Ogunyemi, who spoke yesterday, while featuring on a television programme in Abuja, also said the government cannot threaten the university lecturers with court action.