Six senior staff members of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, in Owerri, have petitioned the federal government over the process of recruitment of a new rector for the institution.
The petition signed by the six persons who also contested the position of substantive Rector of the institution was made available to newsmen in Owerri, yesterday.
The six staff members are : Dr Uzoma Ibeja, Dr Christopher Onyiemenonu, Dr Lilian Esiagu, Dr Catherine Nwachukwu, Dr Okafor Okereaffia and Dr Chinwe Okpoechi.
The petition was addressed to the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman.
The petitioners, all applicants to the position of rector of the polytechnic, said they were shortlisted,
along with one other person, for an interview which was to be held on Aug. 6, 2024, but that they were compelled to sit for an examination instead, contrary to the provisions of the Polytechnics Act 2019 (As Amended).
They also said that the resource person recruited for the conduct of the exercise is unqualified and results from a process overseen by him should not be considered acceptable.
They further said that four out of the seven members of the selection board had earlier suggested that the exercise be halted, having observed anomalies, until all issues raised by the protesting candidates were addressed.
According to them, there was no collation of candidates’ results and no reports on the exercise were written, signed, adopted and submitted to the Governing Council.
They therefore dissociated themselves from any purported results of candidates for the position submitted to the Federal Ministry of Education by the chairman of the governing council, Hon. Henry Ikoh.
They described such results as “contrivances of some persons who unlawfully desire to foist a Rector on the institution “.
They called for detailed investigations into the exercise to determine its compliance or not with extant laws.
” We call on the Honourable Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, to reject any results purportedly emanating from this flawed process in line with President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to due process as expressed in his visit to our institution one year ago.
” We also call for the conduct of a fresh interview in line with extant laws to ensure that the process leading to the emergence of a substantive rector is beyond reproach”, they stated.
