THERE was a mild drama at popular Unity Fountain in Abuja on Thursday as police operatives prevented non-teaching workers from universities across the country to embark on a protest.
This newspaper reports that the university workers under the aegis of Joint Action Committee (JAC) had earlier scheduled to hold a peaceful protest to press home their demands over non-payment of their four months’ salaries.
The workers are members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).
But police operatives drawn from the Federal Capital Territory Command prevented the varsity workers from embarking on the protest and blocked the entrance of Unity Fountain, venue of the protest with an Armoured Personnel Carrier and Hilux vehicles.
Our correspondent, who was at the venue, reports that at about 9:10am, Commissioner of Police in FCT, Benneth Igwe, arrived at the venue, telling the union leaders that they would not use Abuja streets for their protest without giving any reason.
However, NASU General Secretary, Peters Adeyemi, who spoke briefly thereafter, told journalists that appropriate authorities were informed about the planned protest.
As of the time of filing this report, members of the two unions including their counterpart from NAAT were still barricaded inside the Unity Fountain.
The Thursday’s protest was part of a broader wave of demonstrations that started last week Tuesday across the states and FCT by both NASU and SSANU, to voice their grievances over the withheld salaries by the Federal Government.
Recall that on March 2022, the four unions across universities embarked on a prolonged strike due to the government’s failure to honour multiple agreements.
However, in 2023, President Bola Tinubu directed the payment of their withheld salaries and exclusion of universities from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform.
Nine months after the presidential directives, the unions accused the Federal Government of selective payment of the withheld salaries by excluding their members.
