The management of the Edo State-owned Ambrose Alli University, (AAU) Ekpoma, said on Monday that its students would remain on campus for the two-week warning strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
The authorities said they would not be shutting down the institution but would encourage the students to use the period to read their books and remain calm.
Spokesman for the institution, Mike Aladenika, said in an interview that there was no need to send the students home, stressing, “We will encourage the students to go to the library and do other things. I don’t think CONUA members will have issues if they decided to go to lectures.
According to him, “ASUU has withdrawn its services and that is it. We are not shutting down the school. The only service not available is the teaching.”
Chairman of ASUU-AAU chapter, Dr. Cyril Onogbosele, said there was full compliance with the strike action.
He said ASUU members obeyed the strike action and that academic activities were grounded.
At the University of Benin, the Congress of University Academics (CONUA), in a letter to the University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Edoba Omoregie, by its Chairman, Comrade Ishaq Osagie-Eweka, said the Union had not declared any strike action and was not part of any ongoing strike within the Nigerian University System.
Osagie-Eweka however appealed to the management to protect CONUA members what it called “institutional onslaught” as a result of their stance against strike action.
The letter said its non-strike policy was a matter of principle and responsibility.
The body said, “Consequently, members of CONUA should be regarded as not on strike and are expected to carry out their normal academic duties. The Union therefore kindly urges that CONUA members be protected from any institutional onslaught or adverse treatment arising from their lawful decision to continue working.
“Furthermore, we plead with the University management to direct all Heads of Department to provide necessary logistics to ensure that the ongoing Second Semester Examination is not disrupted.
“Accordingly, Members are by this communique directed to be at their duty post.”
Sources said members of ASUU stopped ongoing examinations in some departments at UNIBEN. Some lecturers who pleaded anonymity said they have joined the strike action.