Kogi govt, JAC sign MOU, end 5-month strike

THE Joint Action Committee (JAC) of higher institutions in Kogi state on Wednesday suspended the strike it embarked upon on January 31.

The strike, which was suspended for four weeks, was fallout of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the unions and the state government.

The commissioner for education, Dr Sunday Tolorunleke, and three others signed on behalf of government, while the chairman of JAC, Comrade Moses Balogun, led the unions to sign.

Speaking after the signing, the commissioner expressed delight that the strike was brought to an end.

He said with the suspension of the almost five months strike, tertiary institutions in the state would immediately resume for academic activities.

The chairman of JAC said the strike was suspended following the resolution reached with government and the governing councils of various schools in the state.

He said the four weeks suspension was to enable government resolve the outstanding issues, saying if the issues were not resolved in the four weeks the committee might be forced to call out its members.

He however noted that at least 80 percent of the members that were cleared during the screening had been paid, while April and May salaries would be paid by Friday.

Balogun said the committee suspended the strike because of the respect it has for members of the governing councils, who he said had been proactive throughout the strike.

He said the struggle embarked upon by the people was not only because of salary, but to enable the stakeholders sanitise the system.

The JAC chairman lauded Bello for constituting the governing councils, urging him to listen to the members as they would be objective in their approach to issues.