Nnamdi Kanu Drags FG To Supreme Court
The Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU), University of Abuja branch yesterday staged a peaceful protest at the institution’s mini campus over unpaid salaries.
The protest was against alleged maltreatment of lecturers through the no work no pay policy and the court order that mandated the lecturers back to classes.
The branch chairman, Dr Kassim Umaru who spoke during the protest that took place immediately after its congress called on well meaning Nigerians to task the federal government to honor the union’s demand.
Umaru said university lectures were not casual staffers and can’t be paid half salaries, while saying that the National Executive Council of ASUU would decide on an action if the government failed to addressed the issues.
He called on the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, to honor agreement reached with the union, saying the union was forced to the classroom through a court injunction.
“We are here this afternoon to show our displeasure to federal government that it is not all over by forcing us through court injunction, by intimidating us by holding our salaries.
“We are ot going to give up until the federal government does the needful by paying our withdrawn salaries and by also honouring the agreement signed in 2020. This government has signed several agreements with our union, not once, not twice, not three times but refused to honour our agreements.
“We are telling the Nigerian public, traditional rulers, religious leaders, well meaning Nigerians, students and parents that all is not well with the university system in Nigeria and they must pressurise this government to do the needful by honouring the agreement, by paying our salaries,” he said.
Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has taken the federal government to the Supreme Court, praying it to dismiss the government’s plea over the Appeal Court decision which discharged him from the custody of the Directorate of State Services (DSS).
Kanu’s legal team led by Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) argued that their application was necessitated because the statutory period the government was permitted under the fast-track rules of the Supreme Court had since elapsed, and there was no room for further indulgence.
It would be recalled that the Court of Appeal sitting in the Abuja had on October 23 delivered a judgment in an appeal filed on behalf of Kanu, challenging the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to entertain the charge against him.
The justices of the Court of Appeal in this judgment unanimously allowed the appeal and consequently struck out the seven-count charge retained by the trial court.
The court equally proceeded to discharge Kanu. The federal government approached the same Court of Appeal with an application to stay the execution of its judgment, all in a bid to continue the detention of Kanu. On October 28, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja proceeded to grant the order for stay of execution and consequently stayed the execution of the judgment of the same court delivered on October 13.