A major 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.
