UPDATE: FG paid professors N121,000 half salaries – ASUU

Findings by our correspondent on Thursday revealed some professors were paid the sum of N121,000 as salary for October 2022 by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The PUNCH had exclusively reported how the Federal Government had paid lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities half salaries for October.

Although the government has yet to break the silence on the reason for making the half payment, our correspondent gathered that the decision was taken based on the fact that the lecturers resumed work in the middle of October.

A senior member of ASUU, who did not want his name in print, said, “Some professors got an alert of N121,000. We are still waiting for an official statement from the government as to why they decided to pay us half salaries, though unconfirmed reports state that the decision came from the top.”

The national president of ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed the development to our correspondent, “Yes, it is true and we are honestly shocked.”

The PUNCH reports that ASUU had on Friday, October 14, announced a suspension of its eight-month-old strike which commenced on Monday, February 14, 2022. In a statement released and signed by the union’s national president, Professor Osodeke, the union explained that it suspended the strike based on a court order while noting that the government had yet to meet some of the demands which led to the commencement of its strike.