IYAYI’S FAMILY BEGS ASUU TO CALL OFF STRIKE, REFUTES N50B DEMAND FROM KOGI GOV

THE family of the late former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Festus Iyayi, yesterday,
disassociated themselves
from the N50billion demand
from the Kogi State
government over the death
of their son, saying that no
amount of money can
compensate for the loss.

Meanwhile the Coalition to
Save Nigeria (CSN) has
appealed to the striking
ASUU members to call off
the strike action as a mark of
respect for Prof.Iyayi.
It would be recalled that the
Onojie of Ugbegun, home
town of late Prof Iyayi, had
demanded the sum of
N50bilion as compensation
for the death of their son.

TEARS FOR IYAYI—Relations
and sympathisers console
Mrs Grace Iyayi (4th L),
widow of former president
of ASUU, Late Prof. Festus
Iyayi at Ekosodin in Benin
City. Photo: Barnabas
Uzosike.

However, Prof. Robert
Ebewale, a cousin to the
deceased, told Vanguard
yesterday that it was
embarrassing to try to
equate the life of Prof Iyayi
with money, saying that the
family was embarrassed
with N50billion demand.

“No amount of money can
be compared with the life of
that calibre of person, so we
want to disassociate our
family with that. It is
embarrassing to us,” he
stated.

Meanwhile, the Coalition to
Save Nigeria (CSN) received
with shock the death of
Prof. Iyayi, Prof. Iyayi was an
accomplished academic,
author and unionist and a
detribalized Nigerian who
gave voice to the voiceless
and defended the
defenceless against
arbitrariness and impunity
by our public officers.

“With his death, the
Nigerian revolutionary
movement has been
decapitated as Prof. Iyayi
was one of the movement’s
brain boxes in the struggle
for a better Nigeria where
equity, fairness and justice
will reign. We have lost a
committed comrade and an
icon of the struggle for an
egalitarian Nigeria. He was a
true and authentic comrade
who devoted his entire life
to the struggle and died
fighting for educational
justice for the present and
future generations of
Nigerian students,” it stated.

The statement added: “We
call on ASUU and the federal
government to speedily
resolve the remaining grey
areas in their disagreement
to enable the suspension of
the current ASUU strike as a
mark of respect to Prof.

Iyayi”.