ASUP gives 21-day ultimatum over Oko, Ekowe poly

THE National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) has issued the Ministry of Education a 21-day ultimatum, starting from February 3, to check the activities of the councils of the Federal Polytechnics, Oko and Ekowe.

   ASUP has also urged the Federal Government to get them to stop intimidation of and arbitrary suspension of members of staff, as well as abuse of administrative procedures in the institutions.

   In a statement in Jos by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Clement Chairman, the union observed that “the reckless interference in its activities by councils and managements of these polytechnics, and indeed the sordid experiences of its members in the institutions, are lamentable.”

   Chairman, who decried the overbearing attitude of the governing council of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, observed that “the council has unwittingly undertaken certain actions against staff and ASUP of the institution with the sole aim of souring industrial peace and promoting discontent.”

   He accused the council of entrenching “a culture of vicious blackmail, bullying and intimidation of staff through unnecessary issuance of queries and suspension letters and denial of salaries, with the sole aim of protecting the rector, whose style of administration has been weird and retrogressive and full of misdeeds.”

 According to him, the council recently rose from a curiously convened emergency session issuing a cynical statement that purportedly proscribed ASUP in the institution, with further threat of ruthless consequences for any member of staff that contravenes the order.