BVN: ASUU rejects FG’s condition for payment of withheld salaries

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

The federal government had on Tuesday said it has approved payment of the two months’ withheld salaries for university lecturers who were yet to enroll on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

Speaking with NAN on Wednesday, Biodun Ogunyemi, the union’s president, said ASUU is against the federal government’s condition for making the payment.

Ogunyemi, while commending the federal government for its gesture, however, said the directive that affected lecturers must submit their BVN before getting their payment was uncalled for.

“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,” he said.

The ASUU president also claimed that the BVN initiative could be a ploy be the federal government to impose the IPPIS — which the union had vehemently opposed for long — on its members indirectly.

“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,” he added.

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

The development further stretches the lingering controversies between the federal government and ASUU over the IPPIS initiative.