The striking workers and the management of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN) on Tuesday resolved to end the five-month-old industrial action with a view to restoring peace to the 49-year-old research institute.

The 929-strong workers of the Institute were advised to return to work immediately and submit themselves for staff audit under the Federal Government’s Integrated Personal Payroll System (IPPIS) as a pre-condition for collection of their salary arrears.

At the peace meeting which was jointly brokered by the national secretariat of the Senior Staff Association of Universities Teaching Hospital, Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, the parties agreed that nobody would be intimidated or victimized as an aftermath of the strike.

The SSAUTHRIAI mission, led by the Union’s National Secretary, Mr. Moshood Akinade and the government team, led by a Director from the Ministry, Alhaji Ajuwon reassured the aggrieved workers that, as part of the peace efforts, the suspension order placed on four CRIN directors by the board of management had been lifted unconditionally. In the same vein, all the 68 security officers of the Institute hitherto displaced had been ordered to return to their duty posts.

Speaking at the peace meeting, the Executive Director of the Institute, Professor Malachy Akoroda expressed gratitude to the mediating team for their “genuine reconciliatory moves” while promising to keep his own side of the terms of the resolutions.“With today’s parley, there is no doubt that a workable peace has returned to CRIN,”

Akoroda said as he also thanked the workers for resolving to sheath their sword and return to work in the overall interest of the Institute.