Angry lecturers greet el-Rufai with 3-day warning strike

Lecturers of Kaduna Polytechnic on Tuesday began a three-day warning strike over differences with the school management, only a few days after Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai was sworn in as governor of the state.

Announcing the commencing of the strike in Kaduna, the chapter chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), Engr. Musa Ibrahim, said the lecturers are striking to protest the unjustifiable removal of their workload allowance by the management and the poor state of infrastructure in the institution.

The union also decried the delay in the full commencement of the polytechnic and Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH), Lagos, as universities, nine years after the federal government announced their conversion into universities of technology.

Ibrahim said the academic activities will not hold during the period of the strike.

He warned that the union will resume an indefinite strike if the management failed to meet their demands by the end of the three-day industrial action.

The Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, has however faulted the union's position.

He said the school had already spent over N6 Million on the payment of the excess workload allowances since he assumed leadership three years ago, despite inheriting a N1.5 billion debt.

The Rector called on the lecturer to suspend their action, adding that the institution lacks funds to pay outstanding funds.