President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU Professor Biodun Ogunyemi has directed its members not to submit their Bank Verification Number, BVN to Vice Chancellors before they are paid their February and March salaries being withheld on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige at a briefing on Tuesday, said President Buhari has directed the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to immediately pay the lecturers the withheld salaries.
ASUU, started an indefinite nationwide strike on March 23, 2020, following its rejection of the implementation of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System , IPPIS.
Before the strike, the government had threatened not to pay salaries of the lecturers who refused to be enrolled on the IPPIS platform.
Also Read: ASUU embarks on indefinite strike
On Tuesday, Ngige announced that President Buhari, on campationate grounds following the ravaging impact of COVID-19 on families has approved the payment of the February and March withheld salaries to ASUU members, but with one condition which is that each lecturer will produce his or her BVN.
Shockingly, the cheering news from government, does not seem so to ASUU, as the President Professor Ogunyemi, speaking with ait.live directed lecturers not to submit BVN, as it is viewed as a ploy to lure them into the IPPIS platform.
ASUU has been presenting an alternative to IPPIS, which is the University Transparency and Accountability System, UTAS at every opportunity with government
However, the Federal Government has consistently insisted that the lecturers should enrol in IPPIS and when UTAS is fully ready, they will be migrated, just as the movement from PENCOM to the Nigerian Universities Pension company,T NUPENCOM was achieved.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
