The court gave the order after dismissing the union’s application for a stay of execution of an earlier ruling of the National Industrial Court directing the university lecturers to resume work.

The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Hamma Barka granted the union permission to appeal the ruling of the industrial court but ruled that it must first resume work to be allowed to file the appeal.

It said should ASUU fail to re-open the universities, the permission it gave the union to appeal against the interlocutory injunction of the National Industrial Court “will be automatically vacated.”

It gave the university lecturers’ union seven days within which to file its notice of appeal against the order of the National Industrial Court.

I am inclined to granting the application to appeal the decision of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria. But the order of the lower court shall be immediately obeyed,” the court held in its unanimous ruling.

ASUU made this known in a post on its official Twitter handle @ASUU_NG on Tuesday.

The tweet reads: “BREAKING NEWS Universities to Reopen 17th October 2022 as Federal Govt Agrees To Pay The Outstanding 8 Months’ Salaries. (1/2) #ASUUstrike #AsuuStrikeUpdate.

Revitalisation and salary areas have been cleared. Although the issue of UTAS is not finalized, for now, ASUU members have agreed to resume October 17th.”

THEWILL had earlier reported that the ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, in a meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday in Abuja, hinted that the union will soon call off its eight-month-old strike.

He said that from what the union had seen at the meeting “there is light at the end of the tunnel.

“This time around it is hoped that there would not be any persons or group to create issues that would make the union run into any hitch”, he said.

He further hoped that the intervention by the leadership of the House would be the final for the sake of the students, adding that ASUU’s struggle was for the educational and university system in the country.