The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced plans to meet with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

Addressing a meeting on Thursday in Abuja, INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu explained that the meetings which would hold separately were part of efforts to ensure the smooth conduct of the general elections next month.

He disclosed that the electoral umpire would meet with the ASUU leaders over the prolonged industrial strike by members of the union.

“The Commission will meet with the national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) tomorrow Friday 4, January 2019 at 4:00pm,” Professor Yakubu said.

“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the ongoing strike by the Union but only in relation to our preparations for the General Elections.”

Professor Yakubu added that the meeting was to ensure that the strike does not affect the elections negatively, saying the union has an important role to play in the process.

According to him, the bulk of critical election duty staff are drawn from the universities and INEC is determined to ensure that the processes are not affected by the industrial action.

“ASUU is a critical partner to the Commission in delivering credible elections. We look forward to the meeting and we are confident of a positive outcome,” the INEC chairman added.

Following the meeting scheduled to hold on Friday, Professor Yakubu announced that INEC would hold talks with NLC next week, although no specific date was given.

He said, “We are already in partnership with one of its (NLC) affiliate unions, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), with which we recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the movement of personnel and materials on election day.”

•Sourced from a Channels TV report

•INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood