Bayelsa Varsity Exonerates Diri Over Sack Of 198 Casual Workers

Vice Chancellor of Bayelsa Medical University (BMU), Prof Ebitimitula Etebu has absolved Governor Douye Diri of any involvement in the decision by the institution to disengage 198 persons improperly absorbed in 2019 during the last administration.

Etebu said the engagement of the embattled workers was  improper and in violation of the employment rules of the institution.

He made this known yesterday against the backdrop of claims that Diri was responsible for their sack. He said the institution decided to disengage them due to repeated restive nature of the affected workers and demand for new lecturers needed for the several accredited courses of the institution.

The VC said, “The current governor has nothing to do with anything. I am the Vice Chancellor, I told them, because they were trying to destabilize the institution. Every time they were threatening, saying they are going to do this and that. And I told them, look, you have no use to us, you don’t even come to work and if you ask very well, because of the hard times, we have tolerated them for all this while, but they are now trying to take advantage of that.

“People are telling them they have kept you people as casual workers for this period, you are now entitled to be employed’ and they have taken that hook line and sinker. And threatening the management of the university. They go out and tell lies. These are the ones you are hearing. They go and write on Facebook and collude with the opposition. They use it to malign this current administration just to score cheap points for political gains.

“The institution decide to step them down due to constant security reports of their threats/restiveness to go on protest and make the university unmanageable.

“Aside that, in this last quarter of the year we are going to be embarking on a flurry of advisory visits from over 13 regulatory bodies and the NUC. This is a ritual in a specialized university like ours. Those outside the system do not understand these dynamics.

“We need professional lecturers, technologists, technicians among others. Now, all that is in the mind of our people is employment for our ‘young graduates’ irrespective of our specialized requirements.

“These casual staff were foisted on us with a promise to provide emoluments for their salaries which never came. The university has a regulation of employing three academic staff to one non-academic staff.

“The governor has nothing to do with this particular situation. I, as the Vice Chancellor, spoke to them and said, I was going to step them down because we have programmes that have been approved for us and we were supposed to run those programmes and we were supposed to get lecturers to run those programmes. So, it is not their employment that is important to us, because we don’t need them in the first place,” he said.