The management of the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, in Anambra, has given the sacked staff one month to appeal the decision against them.

Kate Omenugha, the university’s vice-chancellor, made the disclosure during an interaction with journalists in Igbariam on Thursday.

The university council last month approved the sacking of Chike Osegbue, C. C. Nwabachili, Ifeoma Kakulu, I. H. Iheukwumere, and Emeka Nwabunnia from the Department of Microbiology for various reasons.

Mr Omenugha said the lecturers were sacked for various offences, including sexual exploitation of students and ethical misconduct. The vice-chancellor added that due process was followed before the university council reached the decision.

Regarding Mr Osegbue’s sacking, the VC said it was unrelated to his participation in the vice-chancellor selection process. Instead, it was purely due to his failure to teach an assigned postgraduate course and his refusal to appear before the panel instituted to address the matter.

She said she was not bothered by the court process Mr Osegbue instituted over the matter, adding that she did not deserve to be vilified for taking the hard but inevitable decision.

Mr Omenugha said there was no truth to what she considered a coordinated media attack on her person before and after her appointment as vice-chancellor, and said she would not be distracted from her mission to reposition the institution.

The vice-chancellor said she came with the mission to give COOU viability, positive visibility and value re-engineering.

She said she was eminently qualified to be VC, having been the second professor of Mass Communication in Nigeria, eight years as commissioner of education, six years as head of the Department of Mass Communication in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, and an international consultant, among others.

Mr Omenugha said her administration was addressing the school’s landscape with a leisure park and an economic tree orchard, and was pursuing the target of planting one million trees in five years to create a conducive and ecologically friendly environment.

She expressed concern about the security of the university host community and urged people to support the institution by constructing hostel accommodation to encourage on-campus residence among students.

(NAN)