ASUU Strike Responsible For Continuation Of #EndSARS Protest – FG

The Federal Government on Thursday asserted that the reason the ongoing demonstrations by youths across the country have gathered and sustained its momentum is because of  the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) in the country.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, made the assertion at a reconciliation meeting between the Federal Government and ASUU on Thursday in Abuja.

Ngige averred that children who were supposed to be in school were being co-opted and recruited into the campaign demanding for an end to police brutality.

According to Ngige, “for the past one week, we have all been on our toes, we’ve been meeting, and we pray that this meeting will yield good fruits.

“We don’t take pleasure in the fact that the children who are supposed to be in school are being recruited into the EndSARS, #EndStrike, #EndSWAT campaign.

“As much as possible, we’ll try to see how we can meet ourselves halfway so that we can resolve this crisis to the benefits of all and the country at large.”

The minister said that the Federal Government has commenced the process of testing the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) platform, created by ASUU.

He said that ASUU members have claimed that the platform will accommodate the peculiarities of the university systems and that the platform will involve three stages of the test to be concluded within the time frame the union gave the government.

“We have the preliminary report, and the test run on the UTAS, and we believe that with that, we will be able to get it right.

“Let me make it clear to members of the press. We never said UTAS would replace the Integrated Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as some of you are reporting.

“No! The UTAS developed by them is for the University systems, and they feel that it captures the peculiarities that are configured to accommodate all the University systems, especially as it affects the Professors and other teaching staff and even the Non-Academic Staff.

“We, as a government, feel we are going to put it up for tests – three stages of the test. We’ve done the first stage of the test, which is within the timeline of six months that ASUU promised.

“We are going to do another integrity test, Alpha test, Beta test and the one they call roll-over and other whatever test. It’s the technologists that know all those tests. But this is the round we are going on now,” he said.