Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Friday, ordered university lecturers to end their protracted strike action and return to the classroom.
University lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had on February 14, 2022, declared an industrial action over the failure of the Federal Government to honour its 1999 agreement with the union.
Following the failure of ASUU and the Federal Government to reconcile their differences over the eight-month old strike, the Federal Government, last month dragged ASUU to the National Industrial Court, NIC, which ordered the Union to return to class.
But the union appealed the judgement and applied for a stay of execution.
The appellate court, in a ruling that was delivered by a three-man panel led by Justice Hamma Barka, stressed that it would not entertain any appeal from ASUU, until it obeyed the order of the National Industrial Court, NIC.
It, however, granted the aggrieved varsity lecturers leave to proceed with the 14 grounds of appeal they earlier filed to set-aside the interlocutory injunction the NIC gave in favour of the Federal Government.
