Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union Embark On Warning Strike

WorldStage Newsonline-- Lecturers of the colleges of education in Nigeria under the umbrella body of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) on Monday commenced a seven-day warming strike to press home their demands from the Federal and States Governments.

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been on indefinite for over two months.

Chairman of COEASU at the Adeyemi College of Education (ACE), Ondo and the National Vice-President of the union, Samuel Akintunde and Smart Olugbeko, led other members in the protest march that preceded the commencement of the strike action today.

They shut the main entrance into the college and brought academic activities on campus to a halt as they embarked on protest march.

The union leaders said COEASU embarked on the strike action over failure of the Federal Government to honour the gentleman agreement it entered with the teachers' union in 2009.

Besides, it condemned the protracted delay in the release of the White Paper of the Presidential Visitation panels to Federal Colleges of Education.

COEASU argued that the delay was a deliberate attempt to ignore the critical issues that the panels unearthed.

It also rejected the introduction of Integrated Personnel Payment System (IPPIS), stressing that it was not only retrogressive, but infringed on the very laws establishing colleges of education and the regulatory body; thereby capable of obstructing the smooth running of colleges of education.

The union urged both Federal and State governments to fund education sector maximally given its strategic necessity as an indispensable need in the development strides of any nation.

Following the strike, the management of Adeyemi College of has suspended the on-going examinations in the school, urging the students to remain calm until COEASU call off the strike.

Deputy Provost of ACE, Olufemi Olajuyigbe told journalists that the request for weaver to allow the students finish their exams was turned down by the local chapter of COEASU in order not to incur the sanction of the national body.

Olajiyigbe, however pleaded with the Federal Government to save the education sector from total collapse with the on-going strike action by tertiary institutions in the country.