By JOAN NWAGWU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says it has rejected the submission of Bank Verification Number (BVN) as a condition for payment of February and March withheld salaries of lectures in the Federal Universities.

Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President, said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Federal Government on Tuesday in a statement has approved the payment of February and March withheld salaries of lecturers in universities, who were yet to enroll on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

NAN recalls that ASUU had embarked on an indefinite strike on March 23, over failure of the government to address outstanding issues raised in the FGN-ASUU 2019 Memorandum of Action and the objections of ASUU to IPPIS.

ASUU had rejected the application of force on its members to join the IPPIS in spite of its offer of a more credible alternative to IPPIS.

According to Ogunyemi, we have been told that the Federal Government has approved the payment of withheld salaries of our members for the month of February and March.

“We appreciate Mr President for doing that, however, withholding February and and March salaries was unnecessary in the first place.

“In the second place, the issue is the condition attached to it, which does not go down well with our members, which is the supply of their BVN.

“Our members are being paid in the past without asking for their BVN.

“So, we have reasons to suspect that this is an indirect way to get us back to IPPIS, which our members rejected.

“So, these are things we are going to clarify with the government whenever we are called for a meeting,” he said. (NAN)