EBONYI State University, Abakaliki has disengaged sixty-three (63) members of staff for alleged irregularities ranging from falsification of certificates, alteration of birth certificates and embarking on leave without approval.
Addressing Newsmen during an elaborate Press conference at the main Campus of the institution, the University Vice-Chancellor, Prof Chigozie Ogbu regretted that a Guber candidate in the state and others have inflated the numbers on social media and alleged that the exercise has a political undertone.
According to Prof Ogbu, the exercise was an outcome of one month and half thorough job of the University ‘s staff Audit Committee as approved by the Governing Council at its 82nd regular meeting on the 19th day of September 2018.
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The Vice-Chancellor stressed that the committee is made up of Deans, Directors, principal officers from all the senatorial zones of the state who met with all the University staff both young and old and interviewed them with an immediate perusal of their employment files, during which 2282 escaped the hammer.
He noted that also disengaged are 46 contracts and 90 adjunct academic staff, most of whom are between 75 to 80 years of age, added that their contracts shall not be renewed forthwith, unless at cases where departments have the need for them and no qualified replacement.
He opined that the measure will create room for young professors and academics including many qualified Ebonyi people who are yet to get employed and put the University in a better standing before the foreign University collaboration whom he said have advised them to get younger dynamic academics, in line with global best practices.
”The second category of staff who were recommended for disengagement are sixty-three (63) in number and nowhere near the exaggerated number in the social media. These staffs were disengaged in the basis of findings of overstay in service, non-retirement after the age of 65/70, falsification of records of age and qualifications. Each staff was confronted with the findings in his/her records and they had no evidence to counter the findings of the committee. They were disengaged without any further charges.
”We frown at a Guber candidate who says he will retain disengaged staff not knowing that the University is autonomous and regulated by National Universities Commission (NUC) and a set of rules. The politician s should find another ground to spread their falsehood and leave the University in peace.”
”Indeed, the authorities of the institution will not succumb to cheap blackmail nor victimise any law abiding staff or any section of the state, as it is unequivocally committed to equity, justice and fairness to all”, the Vice Chancellor stressed.
On his part, the Dean of Post Graduate School, prof Eugene Nweke, gave an insight on their fast-tracking process of graduation to the normal stipulated time and measures put in place to ensure the success of the school generally.
Speaking on the matter, Dr Odicha Udeh of Work and Study school who was also a member of the committee revealed that they found some whose record claimed they took First School Leaving Certificate at the age of five, some two, some six, while some have about three different dates of birth and insisted that the exercise has no political undertone.
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