The meeting between the Kwara State government and striking lecturers of Colleges of Education in the state yesterday ended in a deadlock as the unions rejected government’s call to suspend the over one-month old strike.

The three state-owned colleges in Ilorin, Oro and Lafiaji began strikes between April 7 and 10 respectively to agitate for pay rise, settlement of retirement benefits of retired lecturers, review of retirement age from 60 year to 65 years, among others.

The national body of lecturers under the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) has been on strike since December last year but their state counterparts did not join until last month.

The government summoned the various unions under the Committee of Unions of Tertiary Institutions (CUTI) to a meeting held at the College of Education Ilorin last Wednesday. The meeting was attended by the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Alhaji Abdulwahab Opakunle, Special Adviser on Labour Comrade Bisi Fakayode and provosts of the three colleges.

Opakunle in his opening remarks explained that the meeting was convened on behalf of Govebnor Abdulfatah Ahmed to fine-tune relationship between the government, management and the unions, saying the lingering issues must be resolved for tertiary education to move forward.

On his part, the Special Adviser on Labour said the governor wanted the unions to suspend the strike immediately while the government considers their requests.

The unions rejected the call for suspension of the strike, requesting for a written agreement to that effect as well as a clause on non-victimisation of their leaders before suspending the strike.