IPPIS: Angry students disrupt ASUU meeting in UNIPORT

Wednesday, November 27, 2019 3:33 pm

The students during the confrontation with ASUU members

..Advise ASUU to obey FG, register in IPPIS to fight corruption

…Just as new splinter group of Lecturers, CONUA, also holding meeting simultaneously

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Angry students and members of the Students Union Government, SUG, of the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT on Wednesday, disrupted an emergency meeting of Association Academic Staff Union, ASUU at the Delta Campus of the institution.

Dr Austen Sado who is the UNIPORT ASUU branch Chairman had called the meeting to deliberate on the directive by the Federal Government that lecturers should enroll on the Integrated Personnel Payment System, IPPIS platform.

Also of concern to the ASUU leadership was the issue of establishment of rival union, Congress of Nigeria University Academics, CONUA by some lecturers.

Sado was giving his introductory speech when students who had arrived the venue with placards with various inscriptions like: “ASUU no more strikes,” “Obey the FG, enroll in IPPIS if nothing to hide”,”We support FG for transparency” ,”CONUA mean well for students” etc, burst into songs drowning the Dr Sado’s speech.

The ASUU members had to disperse from the venue and relocated to a hotel to continue the meeting.

The protesting students stayed behind to ensure that ASUU members leave the venue.

As at about 10 am, 55 Lecturers had signed the attendance register for the meeting at the entrance of the ASUU Secretariat before the disruption.

It would be recalled that yesterday, the UNIPORT chapter of CONUA had directed its members to begin enrollment into the Integrated Payment and Personnel Information System ,IPPIS.

CONUA gave the directive on Tuesday in a communique signed by the Coordinator , Dr Ovunda Ihunwo , and the Secretary , Dr O .F. Mbalisi.

In the communiqué read to journalists in Port Harcourt , Ihunwo described as irritating the frequency with which some ASUU leaders at both the national level and branches across the country incited their members to embark on strike as a means of resolving industrial disputes.

He said the ASUU leaders ’ action was a show of ineptitude and lack of patriotism.

He said, “We call on our members to enroll for the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System

IPPIS because the higher education system in Nigeria is on the verge of a dangerous precipice and there is an urgent need for all the stakeholders; the government , the general public and employees of tertiary institutions , especially academics , to adopt deliberate measures towards salvaging the system . ”

Ihunwo alleged that most of the crises that had rocked UNIPORT in the past three years were orchestrated by the current Chairman of ASUU who he also accused of destabilising the smooth running of the institution .

But Sado has denied the allegations pointing that he was being accused because he had continued to stand for justice .

Sado said , “The allegations against me are the product of the figment of the imaginations of those who concocted them and nothing like that”.

Meanwhile, it was gathered the the new splinter group was simultaneously holding it’s meeting somewhere on campus at filing this report.

The details of the meeting were not made known to our Correspondent at the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, enrollment into the IPPIS was going on at the Ebitimi Banigo hall and it is being coordinated by officials from the office the Accountant General of the Federation.

Federal Government had warned that any lecturer who refuses to enroll on the payment platform would not receive his or her December 2019 salaries.