The management of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State has defended the sack of 440 staff of the university whose temporary appointment elapsed February this year.
The university said the affected workers were employed close to the expiration of the tenure of the immediate past vice chancellor of the institution, Professor Hillary Edeoga, without recourse to due process.
Addressing journalists at the conference room of the Senate chamber, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Francis Otunta, said, “Everybody employed in a federal university is hired on temporary basis and has to undergo what’s called regularization within a year (before becoming full time) failure of which leads to the elapsing of the contract.”
He added that his predecessor, between November 2015 and February 2016 when his tenured expired, hired over 400 people although he knew there was no fund to pay them. “Prof. Edeoga didn’t care because these workers were never going to be his problem,” he said.
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