The meeting between the Federal Government, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions ended in a deadlock.

A committee was set up to resolve the dispute over the N40 billion earned allowances and complaints about the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.

Speaking to journalists after the parley, Ngige described the meeting as fruitful and expressed the hope that the dialogue would encourage the unions to suspend their strike.

But the NASU General Secretary said the issues had not been concluded, adding that they asked for time to report back to their members.

He said, “We are favourably disposed to dialogue and after discussing with our members, we will come back and continue with the discussion. So far, nothing has been concluded.

“We don’t have the mandate to talk about suspending the strike. That’s not within our competence. The mandate of our members stands until they ask us to reverse it.”