By VICTOR NWACHUKWU

Six senior staff members of the Federal Polytechnic Nekede in Owerri, Imo, have called for the conduct of a fresh interview process for the recruitment of a new Rector for the institution.

According to them, they have notified the Federal Government over the flawed process of recruitment of a new rector for the institution, a petition by them on Sunday says.

The six persons, who also contested the position of substantive rector of the institution, signed the petition addressed to the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman.

They include Mr Uzoma Ibeja, Mr Christopher Onyiemenonu, Mrs Lilian Esiagu, Mrs Catherine Nwachukwu, Mr Okafo Okereaffia and Dr Chinwe Okpoechi.

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.

However, they said they were compelled to sit for an examination instead, contrary to the provisions of the Polytechnics Act 2019 (As Amended).

They alleged that the resource person recruited for the conduct of the exercise was unqualified and that the 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.

They said 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.

They called for detailed investigations into the exercise to determine its compliance or not with extant laws, bias and transparency.

“We call on the Honorable 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 said. (NAN)

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