FESTUS IYAYI WAS MURDERED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO DESTABLISE ASUU!

Presidency, Minister of Defence and the IGP should be Held Responsible!! 
TELL the PUBLIC “THE STRANGE OBJECT WHICH PIERCED IYAYI’s HEART?

1.    The Joint Action Front (JAF) wishes to alert Nigerians and the international community that Comrade Professor Festus Iyayi was murdered by operatives of the Nigerian State, contrary to the widely reported claims that he died in the bus accident on November 12^th 2013 along the Lokoja – Abuja road due to the recklessness of the Kogi State Governor’s convoy.

2.    JAF has every reason to believe that the murder of Comrade Iyayi was connected with the ongoing Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU) Strike to compel the Federal Government to, not only honour the Collective Agreements it reached with it in 2009; but equally to make Government responsible to adequately FUND Public Education against the dictates of its puppeteers - the IMF and World Bank.

3.    We strongly believe that the assassination of Comrade Iyayi was carried out by expert shooters in the cover of the Nigerian Intelligence, reminiscence of the State murder of Dele Giwa in 1986 and Kudirat Abiola in 1996.

4.    The ‘official explanation’ so far floated by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Sole Administrator of the Specialist Hospital Lokoja – Dr. Paul Amodu that Comrade Iyayi’s death was as a result of the accident, does not explain away “THE STRANGE OBJECT THAT PIERCED IYAYI’s HEART”.

5.    The assassination of Comrade Iyayi was actually a State ACT aimed at destabilising ASUU in the wake of a major national struggle. Comrade Iyayi was actually FOUND-FIXED-FINISHED because of his prominent role in exposing the Government’s IMF and World Bank destructive policies in Education and the Nigerian economy, thereby putting a lie to the false claims that Nigeria is Broke, as cover to loot public wealth for private selfish interests.

6.    Nigerians must know that a former ASUU President, Comrade Dr. Mahmud Tukur, who led the ASUU’s dispute with the Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN) Government in 1980/81 on the same issue of funding, university autonomy and academic freedom, as it is today with the Jonathan Presidency, was murdered in a similar painted-accident scenario on the Kaduna-Zaria road in 1988.

7.    As we in JAF commiserate with Iyayi’s family, ASUU, comrades and friends of Comrade Iyayi and the oppressed poor in Nigeria and Africa whose Iyayi’s struggles touched; we urge the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and ASUU to join forces with JAF to unravel the FACT behind the State MURDER of Iyayi by challenging the Presidency, Minister of Defence and the Inspector General of Police to TELL the PUBLIC “THE STRANGE OBJECT WHICH PIERCED IYAYI’s HEART and why Festus Iyayi should be MURDERED?

8.    Comrade Festus Iyayi’s death is a wakeup call to all Nigerians to struggle for SYSTEM CHANGE. As far as we in JAF are concerned, Nigerians should no longer tolerate this unjust polity where: a very tiny group of Nigerians who loot the treasury use their stolen wealth to sustain themselves in power; use their power to get richer and richer when the poor get poorer and poorer and use the unjust system to bring out the army and the police to kill the poor people and comrades whenever we protest against oppression and exploitation.

DARE TO STRUGGLE, DARE TO WIN!

Comrade ABIODUN AREMU

JAF Secretary