The Academic Staff Union of Universities said it has not suspended its ongoing nine – month – old strike.

Dr . Lazarus Maigoro , Chairman of the University of Jos Chapter of ASUU disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos.

“ It must be categorically stated here that ASUU never signed any agreement to suspend the strike but agreed on timelines for government to implement certain aspects of the issues in contention.

“ For instance , one of the issues agreed was that all the six to nine months withheld salaries and check -off dues of ASUU members will be released by Dec . 9 , but the date has passed and nothing was done .

“ The N 40 billion earned academic allowances and N 30 billion funding for revitalisation will also be released by Dec . 11 , among other issues , but till now, none has been fulfilled.

“ The next thing is that we heard Dr Chris Ngige , the Minister of Labour and Employment , telling the public that ASUU agreed to suspend the strike , ” he said .

“ He was quoted to have said the government had fulfilled its part of the gentleman agreement it entered with ASUU on Nov. 27 .

“ He was also quoted to have claimed that payment of the public university lecturers ’ salaries being withheld would require presidential clearance due to the prevailing “ No work, no pay ” rule .

“ It is important for Nigerians to note that salaries of lecturers of federal universities , who refused to enroll in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS ) were stopped in February before they went on strike in March .

“ It should , however , be noted too that IPPIS and salary stoppage were not among the demands of ASUU but was introduced by the government as a distraction , ” he noted .

Punch