Mouau under pressure to dismiss 460 workers

A serious tension is on in the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) in Abia state. This tension is as a result of the fact that they were asked to disengage about 460 temporary workers that were engaged by the immediate past administration of Prof Hillary Edeoga. The question now is how are they going to survive if such happens?

About 460 temporary workers with the

Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike

in Abia State are on the verge of losing their jobs following the directive by the University authority ordering them to re-apply for renewal of their appointments.
This directive contained in a circular dated April 28, 2017, and signed by the University’s Registrar, Azubuike Nwaokacha, BDSUNDAY gathered, has sent jitters down the spines of the affected temporal workers.
The circular read in part: “Following the resolution at the family meeting held on April 27, 2017, all staff on temporary appointments and whose appointments had elapsed are hereby requested to apply for renewal of temporary appointment.
“The application should be addressed to the registrar through the HoD and Dean. The supervising officers should give cogent reasons why the applicant’s temporary appointment should be renewed”.
The circular had also directed the applicants to include photocopies of their letters of appointment and curriculum vitae, adding that the receipt of application closes one week from May 4, 2017.
A source close to the university management who spoke to the BDSUNDAY on condition of anonymity alleged that some bigwigs in the University who had fallen out of favor with former vice chancellor of the University, Hillary Edeoga, were those responsible for the current directive.
The source further alleged that the cabal had not hidden their plan to get the current Vice Chancellor, Francis Otunta, sack some workers employed toward the end of former VC’s tenure to enable them to replace such workers with their friends and relations.
Recall that Otunta, during his maiden interaction with journalists a few months ago, said he would not sack any staff of the University employed before his appointment as vice chancellor, adding that he would not remove food from anyone’s table.
One of the affected staff who asked not to be named stated that the current development was a calculated effort to sack some workers from the University.
He stated that the staff in question ought to have been invited for regularization, but the process was intentionally delayed to root some workers out of the system.
When contacted, the Public Relation Officer of the University, Adanma Odefa insisted that the Vice Chancellor was not under pressure to sack anybody, but that he was just following the procedure of doing things according to rules of the University.
She confirmed that the staff who were asked to reapply for renewal of their appointments were hired illegally by the past administration of the University.
She said: “There is a bit of a mess that needs to be sorted out, it didn’t just start with this administration. The Administration of Hillary Edeoga hired over 460 people improperly without going through the right procedure.
We have these 460 people who were given temporary appointments and the procedure usually is when a staff has a temporary appointment it elapses automatically after one year if it is not renewed.
“The appointments of staff in question elapsed on February this year. But because of the human face and the present economic realities in the country the University still paid these staff for the month of March, but then the University can no longer continue to pay these people because it is illegal. They are no longer employees of the University technically; you can’t be paying people who are not your employeesAbout 460 temporary workers with the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike in Abia State are on the verge of losing their jobs following the directive by the University authority ordering them to re-apply for renewal of their appointments.
This directive contained in a circular dated April 28, 2017, and signed by the University’s Registrar, Azubuike Nwaokacha, BDSUNDAY gathered, has sent jitters down the spines of the affected temporal workers.
The circular read in part: “Following the resolution at the family meeting held on April 27, 2017, all staff on temporary appointments and whose appointments had elapsed are hereby requested to apply for renewal of temporary appointment.
“The application should be addressed to the registrar through the HoD and Dean. The supervising officers should give cogent reasons why the applicant’s temporary appointment should be renewed”.
The circular had also directed the applicants to include photocopies of their letters of appointment and curriculum vitae, adding that the receipt of application closes one week from May 4, 2017.
A source close to the university management who spoke to the BDSUNDAY on condition of anonymity alleged that some bigwigs in the University who had fallen out of favor with former vice chancellor of the University, Hillary Edeoga, were those responsible for the current directive.
The source further alleged that the cabal had not hidden their plan to get the current Vice Chancellor, Francis Otunta, sack some workers employed toward the end of former VC’s tenure to enable them to replace such workers with their friends and relations.
Recall that Otunta, during his maiden interaction with journalists a few months ago, said he would not sack any staff of the University employed before his appointment as vice chancellor, adding that he would not remove food from anyone’s table.
One of the affected staff who asked not to be named stated that the current development was a calculated effort to sack some workers from the University.
He stated that the staff in question ought to have been invited for regularization, but the process was intentionally delayed to root some workers out of the system.
When contacted, the Public Relation Officer of the University, Adanma Odefa insisted that the Vice Chancellor was not under pressure to sack anybody, but that he was just following the procedure of doing things according to rules of the University.
She confirmed that the staff who were asked to reapply for renewal of their appointments were hired illegally by the past administration of the University.
She said: “There is a bit of a mess that needs to be sorted out, it didn’t just start with this administration. The Administration of Hillary Edeoga hired over 460 people improperly without going through the right procedure.
We have these 460 people who were given temporary appointments and the procedure usually is when a staff has a temporary appointment it elapses automatically after one year if it is not renewed.
“The appointments of staff in question elapsed on February this year.

 But because of the human face and the present economic realities in the country the University still paid these staff for the month of March, but then the University can no longer continue to pay these people because it is illegal. They are no longer employees of the University technically; you can’t be paying people who are not your employees.
 What the University has decided to do is to ask all the people affected to reapply and when they do that, they will be screened properly the way it should have been before they came into the system. That way, we know those that are still relevant to the University and we will hire them”..

What the University has decided to do is to ask all the people affected to re-apply and when they do that, they will be screened properly the way it should have been before they came into the system. That way, we know those that are still relevant to the University and we will hire them”.

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