CLAIM

That ASUU and federal government meeting ended in an altercation, and ASUU chairman, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, was slapped.

VERDICT

The claim that ASUU president was slapped during a meeting with the federal government is FALSE.

Full text

On 23rd October 2020, a Twitter user @maryamamasa posted a twenty-seven-seconds video clip of a rowdy session, claiming that it was an altercation between the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and delegates of the federal government during a meeting to end the ongoing industrial action by the union.

The video which was uploaded at exactly 11:17 am has gathered 460 likes, 276 retweets and viewed by 9,928 users

She said: “We are not resuming school anytime soon. I think they slapped ASUU chairman, just received a dirty slap.”

After some hours, @maryamamasa deleted the video but The ICIR archived the tweet (here)

Another user @fadeldey4u who also shared the video at exactly 2:02 pm that same day has gathered 11,600 views before 11:04 pm on Friday and captioned it as thus: “Forget school this year fam, ASUU”

https://twitter.com/fadeldey4u/status/1319625368320548865?s=19

Verification

On March 9, 2020, university lecturers in Nigeria declared a two-week warning strike to protest against what it termed “forceful” enrolment into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), a payroll software mandated for all public officials.

After the expiration of the warning strike, the union declared an indefinite strike to further press home their demands. This was despite the closure of schools by the federal government to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a turn of event, the leadership of the union met with the federal government to discuss the proposals tabled by the federal government in a bid to end the industrial strike which has been a major challenge why students in federal universities have not returned to school after the government eased the coronavirus lockdown.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/viral-video-suggesting-ASUU-chairman-was-slapped-is-false/

Arrrrrrrh