On Wednesday, the Federal Government announced to the National Industrial Court its decision to respond to the request for arbitration filed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) by May 11th. ASUU filed a lawsuit against the Minister of Labour and Employment and the Registrar of Trade Unions (RTU), challenging the Federal Government’s alleged threat to revoke ASUU’s certificate of registration due to their failure to submit annual financial returns and audited accounts for almost 10 years.
During Tuesday’s hearing, ASUU’s counsel, Mr Marshal Abubakar, stated that he filed a motion to refer the matter to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Centre of the court. However, Mr J.U.K Igwe, the defendants’ counsel, responded that he had not been served any application and needed to consult with his clients to know their decision concerning the referral to ADR. The judge, Justice Benedict Kanyip, adjourned the matter until Wednesday.
When the case resumed on Wednesday, Igwe informed the court that he received ASUU’s application for mediation at the ADR shortly before the proceeding. He sought an adjournment to react formally to the application and file other applications, stating that agreeing to go to the ADR would involve delving into legal technicalities.
Justice Kanyip granted the adjournment and stated that he could refer the parties to ADR, but could not compel anyone to agree or accept issues mediated upon.
Abubakar did not object to Igwe’s application for adjournment to react to their request, and the court ruled that the case would be adjourned until May 11th in Abuja for the hearing of the motion for arbitration.
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