Diri urges NDU lecturers to call off sympathy strike

Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has urged lecturers at the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) to end their seven-month sympathy strike with the national body of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Diri insisted that the sympathy industrial action by lecturers of the university is no longer justifiable, as they have been receiving their monthly salaries without going to work.

He said although the institution’s governing council had scheduled a meeting with the union, the lecturers ought to reciprocate the goodwill of the state government by returning to classroom in the interest of students.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Daniel Alabrah, yesterday, Diri was quoted as saying, on Tuesday, at a dinner in honour of the victorious Bayelsa United Football Club in Yenagoa that the state government had sorted out all issues between it and NDU chapter of ASUU.

Diri noted that lecturers in federal tertiary institutions might have issues with the Federal Government, but that is no longer the case with the state-owned institution’s lecturers.