By Steve Oko
UMUAHIA — The management of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), has defended the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ursula Ngozi Akanwa, against allegations surrounding the institution’s controversial recruitment exercise, attributing the crisis to the immediate past administration for exceeding the approved recruitment quota.
The university said Prof. Akanwa neither supervised nor influenced the recruitment process, insisting that the exercise had been concluded before she assumed office as Vice-Chancellor on March 1, 2026.
It also clarified that the capture of successful candidates on the Federal Government payroll was handled by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), and not by the university.
The clarification follows concerns raised by some affected workers who claimed they were recruited in February 2026 and had been working without salaries. They alleged that during a meeting with the university management last week, their identity cards were retrieved and they were issued fresh letters describing them as “Surplus to Needs,” leaving them uncertain about their employment status.
