The fate of 460 workers of the Michael Okpara University of Ag- riculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State now hangs in the balance as the management of the institution has set in motion the process of sacking them on the ground that the last administration employed them without following due process.
Already the university management has stopped payment of salaries of the affected workers and asked them to reapply to undergo fresh screening in what is seen as a subtle way of offloading the workers.
“There is bit of a mess that need to be sorted out,” the Public Relations officer of MOUAU, Mrs. Adanma Odefa said, adding that the problem was created by “the Professor Hillary Edeoga administration (which) hired over 460 people improperly without going the through the right procedure.
“We have this 460 people who were given temporary appointment and the procedure usually is when a staff has a temporary appointment, it elapses automatically after one year if it is not renewed.
The appointment of staff in question elapsed on February this year”. However a staff of the institution who preferred not to be named, told THISDAY that “what we are witnessing now is the triumph of a section of the academic staff that are hell bent on rubbishing everything that Prof Edeoga did including the job opportunities he created for hundreds of people”. He said that a group of academic staff who were anti-Edeoga had been mounting pressure on the Vice- chancellor, Professor Francis Otunta
to sack the affected workers in order “to save money to pay the lecturers”. The affected staff, who are dubbed “temporary workers”, got to know about their uncertain fate following a circular dated April 28th 2017, signed by the University registrar, Dr. Azubuike C. Nwokocha.
In the circular the registrar stated:
“Following the resolution at the family meeting held on the 27th April 2017, all staff on temporary appointment and whose appointment had lapsed are hereby requested to apply for renewal of temporary appointment.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
