The Academic Staff Union of Universities has insisted that the Federal Government cannot be extricated from blame over circumstances leading to the death of Professor Festus Iyayi.
ASUU stated this one year after the death of the University of Benin lecturer, insisting that the impunity with which government officials use sirens and disobey traffic rules have always constituted danger to the people.
The union also said if the Federal Government had implemented its 2009 agreement with it, there would have been no need for a protracted action the late university don was trying to find an amicable end to.
ASUU President, Nasir Fagge, represented by Biodun Ogunyemi, made the remarks on Wednesday at a commemorative conference in honour of the late don at the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abuja.
Fagge said the union is missing Iyayi’s people-oriented counsel, leadership trait, ruggedness and his sense of direction, adding that the vacuum created by his exit in the union’s affair was immeasurable.
The ASUU president confirmed that the union was still in court where they hope to get justice for the late academic, who once served as President of ASUU.
“We are today gathered in memory of Comrade Iyayi; it is expected that this occasion will afford us the platform to recall and reflect on the good times we had with him and take stock of what we have done and how best to keep his name in perpetuity and redress the senseless situation in which he was killed.
“We are presently in the court of law over what amounts to the murder of Professor Iyayi by an agent of the Kogi State Government. We hope to get justice for Comrade Iyayi and for ordinary Nigerians who have been victims of state-involved murder.” he stated.
Late Professor Festus Iyayi was killed on Tuesday November 12, 2013 in a road accident involving the convoy of Governor of Kogi State, Idris Wada, while on his way to Kano to attend an ASUU NEC meeting aimed at resolving the protracted industrial action embarked upon by the university teachers.
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