ASUU strike claims it biggest casualty, festus Iyayi dies in auto crash yesterday.

Author and  former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Festus Iyayi was killed in an auto accident yesterday. Iyayi, led the union from 1986 to 1988. The late unionist and other officials involved in the accident were on their way to Kano for the enlarged National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of ASUU scheduled to take place at the Bayero University, Kano.

The accident,  which occurred along the Lokoja-Abuja Road in the early hours of yesterday, was confirmed  by the incumbent President , Dr.  Nasir Fagge yesterday.
He disclosed that the union was informed of the development yesterday morning.
He explained that the late Iyayi died on a failed portion of the highway around Lokoja in Kogi State.

The celebrated activist was born in 1947 in Ugbegun, Ishan, Edo State.
In 1968, he left for the defunct Soviet Union to pursue his higher education, obtaining an M.Sc in Industrial Economics from the Kiev Institute of Economics and then his Ph.D from the University of Bradford, England.
In 1980, he returned to the University of Benin as a lecturer in the Department of Business Administration.


A well known author of four books, Violence, The Contract, Heroes and Awaiting Court Martial, Dr. Iyayi won the Commonwealth Prize for Literature for his book Heroes in 1988.
Meanwhile, according to an eye witness, Prof Festus Iyayi was killed in an accident that involved the convoy of the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada which occurred  at Banda Village yesterday  while the governor was returning from an official engagement in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

A statement from Government House, Lokoja signed by Special Adviser to the governor on Media, Jacob Edi said  the convoy was on a speed of 80 kilometers per hour when a bus suddenly collided with the escort van from the opposite direction.
“We regret that sadly, in the storm,  a renown academic and respected human rights advocate, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who was in the other vehicle died in the accident,” the statement said.
It was learnt that there were other victims with varying degree of injuries from both sides.
The victims were immediately evacuated to the state Specialist Hospital in Lokoja on the governor’s directive.

The statement added that governor  Wada had expressed his sympathy with the victims and their families and wishing the deceased a peaceful repose of his soul.