The University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected what it called a secret and fraudulent recruitment in the university.

The union said this started towards the end of the tenure of the immediate past Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ndowa E. S. Lale. It faulted President Muhammadu Buhari’s omission of the university among those with recently constituted governing councils.

In a statement on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, UNIPORT’s ASUU Chairman Austen Sado said the union felt concerned that the administration of the university continued to violate laid-down procedure in the management of the institution.

“The latest is the ongoing recruitment of both academic and non-academic workers without regard to the rules and procedure for such exercise in the university. To the best of our knowledge, there is no advertisement of vacancies in the university, which ought to be and is the first step of a transparent recruitment process.

“The union should not be misunderstood as saying there is no need for additional workers in the university, particularly the academic component. But the recruitment process must be transparent and fair, in addition to observing all the established rules guiding the conditions for staff recruitment, appraisal and promotions in the university.

“The present exercise is lacking in all indices of evaluation and appears to be a tactic to hurriedly employ unqualified cronies as a parting gift and to synchronise the personnel register with fraudulent personnel costs.” (Text, excluding headline, courtesy The Nation)

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