UniAbuja - ASUU Appeals for Release of Visitation Panel Report

The Abuja zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has appealed to the federal

The call was made yesterday in a communiqué released after the meeting of the zone which comprises the University of Abuja, the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Ibrahim Badamasi Bagangida University, Nassarawa State University, Benue State University and Kogi State University.

The union stated that the visitation exercise was aimed at finding a lasting solution to the crises in the varsity and its report had been submitted to the government for over six months and pleaded with Nigerians and parents to prevail on the government to release the paper if the varsity should move forward.

The union condemned the hostility it said was directed towards it by the vice chancellor of UniAbuja, Prof James Adelabu, whom it said had denied the union access of the national secretariat to commemorate the silver jubilee of the school and the locking out of the UniAbuja branch chairman from his office for a week, calling on security agencies to protect the union members from what it called acts of aggression by the vice chancellor.

On the issue of transfer of engineering students of UniAbuja to other schools, the union called on the authorities concerned to make available certain things to ensure that the quality of education for the students being transferred was not compromised.

They advocated among other things, that the terms of transfer should be clearly spelt out and that none of the students shall lose out on account of discrepancies in admission requirements of the transferring and receiving universities.

"That the receiving universities should be given enhanced funding in order that they may shore up facilities to accommodate the added load. Also, that the students should be assisted in the relocation exercise," part of the communiqué read.

The union also condemned the use of the military to contain civil protests which brought about the loss of lives of students of the Nasarawa State University and prayed for the repose of the souls of the deceased and for God to comfort their families.

government to hasten the release of the white paper of the special visitation panel to the University of Abuja (UniAbuja), so that the university can move out of the dungeon it has been in for the past years.