The University of Ilorin chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities (ASUU), has called on stakeholders to intervene in the current payment crisis rocking lecturers and the federal government or risk another industrial action.

The UNILORIN chapter Chairman of ASUU, Prof Moyosore Ajao, made the call on Monday, November 28, at a special congress of the local branch held at the university’s main auditorium, Ilorin after a solidarity rally within the university campus.

In a speech credited to Ajao and read by the secretary of the union, Dr. AbdulGaniyu Olatunji at the congress, Ajao said the Federal Government and its agents forced the ASUU into the February 14, 2022 strike due to its refusal to honor the Memorandum of Action (MOA) signed with the Union on December 2020. He warned that the next line of action would be worst than the last industrial action should the government insist on casualizing university lecturers.

In another development, the Ibadan zone of the Union protested at the University of Ibadan (UI) and accused the federal government of victimization and double standard with regard to the suspended eight-month-old strike and financial discrepancies meted out to its members.

The zonal chairman of the union, Ayo Akinwole, added that the government, rather than addressing the demands of the Union, started playing politics with the lives of Nigerians and quickly moved to stop the payment of ASUU members’ salaries for seven months, which has led to starvation and death of some members of the Union.