Strike: FUOYE, SSANU disagree over death of asthmatic student

The management of the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE) has blamed the death of a student of the institution on the “insensitivity” of the striking members of the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU).

The yet-to-be-identified asthmatic student was said to have died on Tuesday — shortly after SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) began a nationwide strike action.

The unions are demanding the release of the four-month salaries of members withheld during an eight-month strike in 2022.

Speaking on the incident, Abayomi Fasina, the vice-chancellor of FUOYE, said the deceased student could not get treatment due to the ongoing strike that led to the closure of the university’s health centre.

Fasina, who was represented by Tajudeen Opoola, the deputy vice-chancellor (administrative), at a press conference in Oye Ekiti on Tuesday, warned that FUOYE management would no longer allow the breakdown of law and order in the university under the guise of the strike.

“We lost a student this morning in FUOYE who had asthma because he could not be taken to our clinic because the facility is under lock and key,” he said.

“It is true that students are on vacation but not all of them are living on campus. It would have been easier for the student to be rushed to our clinic for treatment, but our university gate is locked.

“Our own chairman was the one who gave false information to the National President (of SSANU). Since he gave the impression that he had been beaten and harassed. The National President allegedly directed that the leadership of their union in Ondo, Osun and Kwara should proceed to FUOYE to rescue the chairman. It is that impunity that the EKSU chairperson used. But we hope he won’t misuse the immunity.

“The University is not going to fold its arm and allow anybody in whatever name or allow any union to come and occupy our place. We have a way of dealing with such. This is Nigeria and nobody is above the law.”

In his reaction, Oluwaseun Faleye, FUOYE SSANU chairman, insisted that the union duly notified the varsity of the seven-day warning strike before embarking on it.

“Is FUOYE the only federal university that is observing the seven-day warning strike?” Faleye asked, adding that “many schools are under lock and key.”

“Before now, there was a notice of strike. I have a memo that the university issued before the notice that we will be embarking on a seven-day warning strike that directed the students to vacate the hostels to avoid something of such,” he said.