Buhari orders payment of ASUU members’ withheld salaries

Opeyemi Adelere

President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate payment of salaries owed some lecturers who had refused to enrol in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

The president gave the order at a meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige in Abuja, on Tuesday as disclosed on Wednesday by the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha.

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According to Mustapha, the approval is in line with measures to see that no one is left at a disadvantage during this trying time.

Recall that the Federal Government and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had been in disagreement over enrollment in IPPIS payment platform, made compulsory for all workers by the government.

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Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the submission of Bank Verification Number (BVN) as a condition for payment of its withheld February and March salaries.

ASUU president, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in Abuja on Wednesday said, “We have been told that the Federal Government has approved the payment of withheld salaries of our members for the months of February and March. We appreciate Mr President for doing that; however, withholding February and March salaries was unnecessary in the first place.

“In the second place, the issue is the condition attached to it, which does not go down well with our members, which is the supply of their BVN. Our members are being paid in the past without asking for their BVN. So, we have reasons to suspect that this is an indirect way to get us back to IPPIS, which our members rejected. So, these are things we are going to clarify with the government whenever we are called for a meeting.”