Breaking News: ASUU court has granted the union

 The Academic Staff Union of Universities' appeal against the National Industrial Court's decision will be heard by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Tuesday (today), The PUNCH has learned.

As conversatiopns and discussions between the union and the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, have persisted. Breaking    

The team led by Gbajabiamila would meet with President Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) today, according to a report in The PUNCH. 

This was revealed to our journalist on Sunday in a conversation with a source with knowledge of the situation. 

The source texted our journalist, "The court will hear the appeal on Tuesday," according to the message. 

Femi Falana, the attorney for ASUU, has not yet responded to the SMS left on his phone when our correspondent tried to reach him for comment.

On September 23, 2022, ASUU filed 14 grounds for appeal against Justice Hamman Polycarp of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria's decision ordering the lecturers on strike to return to work while the Federal Government's lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of their strike was being adjudicated. 

The Federal Government, represented by Mr. James Igwe, filed a motion that resulted in the temporary injunction ordering ASUU members to return to work. 

According to Justice Polycarp, the order was both in the best interests of the nation and of the undergraduates in the nation who had been back at home since February 14th. According to him, public university students who couldn't afford to attend private postsecondary institutions suffered as a result of the strike action. 

Although Justice Polycarp "erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice when he decided to hear and determine the respondents' motion for an interlocutory injunction when he knew or ought to have known that the substantive suit was not initiated by due process of law," ASUU insisted as much in its appeal. 

The Federal Government delayed for around seven months before seeking the NIC for the order of interlocutory injunction, according to ASUU, which further informed the appeal court that it had "uncontroverted and incontrovertible evidence." 

The union maintained that following sections 17 and 18 of the TDA, the NIC may only hear appeals from the Industrial Arbitration Panel's, or IAP's, rulings on matters related to trade disputes.

ASUU declared that it was "completely unsatisfied" with the trial court's ruling, which it claimed should not only be annulled in its entirety but also be postponed from execution.