ASUU Strike: Students, brace up for a long stay at home as DSS arrest strike leaders
The government seem not to be ready to negotiate with ASUU and they have even decided to
take hard measures against the lecturers.
The Department of State Services (DSS) has detained the Chairman of Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) chapters of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) and Bauchi
State University, Gadau, Dr Adamu Babayo.
The Vice Chairman of the association, Dr Ibrahim Maina, condemned the action at a joint press
conference on Sunday in Bauchi.
Maina alleged that Babayo was detained by the DSS operatives on Sunday, when he was
invited to the department’s headquarters in Bauchi.
He said: “the ASUU Chairman, Adamu Babayo was invited through a Short Service Message (
SMS) which is not a formal way of invitation.
“On Friday he received a text message requesting him to report to the DSS office in Bauchi on
Sunday. He went to the office together with some of the executives of the association.
“
The DSS operatives requested other members of his entourage to leave and detained him in
their office,” he said.
Maina said that the action was a violation of fundamental human rights and queried the DSS to
explain the reasons behind the arrest.
“Let them explain to us why he was detained. That will give us the idea of what needs to be
done.
“If the detention is in connection with the ongoing strike; it is a nationwide strike embarked on
by the universities in the country and not a peculiar or personal problem.
“
What wrong have we done by pressing for our rights through the strike,” he queried.
Maina maintained that industrial action is the rights of a worker as enshrined in the civil
service act, which enable workers to press home their demands.
However, a DSS official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied the allegation, insisting
that Babayo was not detained but invited to answer some questions.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ASUU had on Nov. 5 embarked on an indefinite
strike to press for implementation of the agreement reached with Federal Government in 2017.
It this move a wise one by the government?
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