Amajor crack has appeared in the ranks of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) as the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife
branch, at the weekend, decided to pull out of the national body to form
a new union.
The decision to pull out of ASUU national
by OAU branch was taken at a congress held on February 12, when it
rejected the resolutions of ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC)
meeting on the face-off between it and the parent body over an internal
crisis.
Other reasons given by OAU branch to form
a new union are the unilateral removal of the elected treasurer by ASUU
national president and the alleged transfer of N11 million from OAU
branch account to ASUU national account.
The congress noted that the removal of
the duly elected treasurer and transfer of N11 million prompted majority
of members to request that their check off dues usually remitted to
ASUU national be stopped.
The OAU branch also cited the decision of
ASUU NEC to accept the suspended result of the vice chancellor election
and the rejection of the caretaker committee to run the affairs of the
union after the presiding officers abandoned the congress midstream on
Thursday, October 20, 2016, as reasons for pulling out.
At the start of the face-off with ASUU
national, 732 OAU academic staff, out of 1,371 in 2017, wrote the
university’s management to stop payment of their check off dues to the
national body in protest against the way it was handling the crisis in
the branch.