The Court of Appeal in Abuja has directed the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to immediately call off its eight-month strike before its appeal against the ruling of the National Industrial Court (NIC) ordering its members to return to class could be heard.
The Friday ruling by the three-member panel led by Justice Hamma Barka declared: “For the avoidance of doubt, the applicant shall immediately abide and obey the order of the interlocutory injunction made by the lower court.
“Upon the immediate complaince and return to work, to their duty post as in order one above, leave is hereby granted to the applicant to appeal against the decision of the interlocutory order of the lower court made against it.
“The applicant shall upon the immediate complaince with the orders above, by complying with the order of interlocutory injunction made against it by the lower court, immediately, today, Oct. 7 and returning to work, we shall allow seven days from today, within which to file the notice and grounds of appeal at the registry of the lower court.”
Justice Barka was worried that ASUU had not obeyed the order of the lower court.
”Worrisome is the disobedience of the order of the National Industrial Court”, that a senior counsel like Femi Falana who is known for his advocacy for obedience to court orders could not convinced his client to comply with a simple order of the court.
According to him, although, the applicant had breached the order of court by its disobedience , “I am inclined to grant the leave to appeal ” sought by the applicant.
”I challenge Falana to impress on his client to obey the order of the lower court because this court can not be moved without compliance with the order.”
The court held that should the applicant fail to comply with order one of the ruling and return to work, the leave hereby granted to the applicant to file the appeal shall be automatically vacated.
The court held that failure to adhere to the order, would make the appeal incompetent before Court of Appeal.
The court also ruled that ASUU, having withdrawn the application seeking a stay of execution of the ruling of the lower court, the application was hereby struck out.
Two weeks ago, the NIC granted an interlocutory order following an application to that effect by the Federal Government, ordering members of the union to return to work pending the resolution of the dispute.
Counsel to the government, James Igwe (SAN) said that the ruling of the appellant court was a well considered one as the justices considered the plight of both the nation and the students.
He expressed optimism that the union would obey the court’s order.
Speaking on behalf of ASUU, Mr Mashall Abubakar, said that the decision of the court would be conveyed to his clients and they would be advised appropriately.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) has said it’s studying the judgment of the Court of Appeal that ordered them to call-off the eight-month-old strike on Friday, adding that they will soon come up with their next line of action.
In reaction to the court of Appeal judgment, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, told journalists “We have not received the ruling, when we get it, we will review it with our lawyer and then we can take the next step”.
Recall that the Federal Government, after failing to reach an agreement with ASUU decided to sue the body to the National Industrial Court on September 11.
The court on September 24, ordered the striking lecturers to return to class while negotiation with the Federal Government continues.