Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, is still enmeshed in controversy over the termination of the appointments of 496 workers last week.
While the workers, made up of academic and non-academic staff, have cried that they were sacked by the new vice-chancellor, Francis Otunta, to enable him “recruit his own people”, the university administration has said the workers were engaged on temporary basis and had failed the regularization of appointments.
“The staff were engaged on temporary basis in 2016 and their appointment automatically terminated after one year but we continued paying their salaries while waiting for the Governing Council to make their decision,” spokesperson of the university, Adanma Odefa, said on Monday.
She said the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Hilary Edeoga, had erred over their appointments as he hired without informing the governing council.
“The Vice-Chancellor can hire on temporary basis if the need arises but he (Mr. Edeoga) went on a hiring spree and hired over 400 people knowing it is not his problem to pay them. The university is saturated with staff we don’t even need,” Ms. Odefa said.
She said Mr. Edeoga did not even brief his successor, Mr. Otunta, on the appointment of the workers.
“The past vice-chancellor acted wrongfully and criminally, why did he hire for the new vice-chancellor and didn’t allow him to hire for himself, ” the university spokesperson said.
But Mr. Edeoga faulted that position, insisting that university administration was a continuous process.
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