The Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State, has clarified that the Federal Government granted it a waiver to recruit only 426 staff, not 618 as being speculated.

The university’s Head of Public Relations and Protocol, Mr. Anyaso Anyaso, disclosed this while addressing journalists on Tuesday, stressing that the institution formally recruited only the 426 personnel approved by both the Federal Government and the university’s Governing Council.

According to him, the Governing Council directed the immediate past administration, led by the 6th Vice-Chancellor, to implement the recruitment strictly within the approved quota.

He explained that the current Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ursula Ngozi Akanwa, who assumed office in March 2026, inherited the 426 approved employees.

Anyaso, however, revealed that, contrary to the approved figure, appointment letters were allegedly issued to 618 persons, while 553 names were captured on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS). He added that GIFMIS eventually uploaded only the 426 names approved by both the Federal Government and the university’s Governing Council.

He maintained that the current Vice-Chancellor has no access to the GIFMIS platform and therefore could neither add nor remove names from the system.

The clarification followed a protest on Monday by 127 persons who claimed they were among the newly recruited staff but were later disengaged.

The protesters insisted they were duly employed, having received appointment letters and staff identity cards, and appealed to the Federal Government and other stakeholders to facilitate their reinstatement, arguing that they had been recognised as university employees for the past five months.

Reacting to the development, Anyaso urged members of the public and stakeholders to disregard what he described as misleading claims being circulated by “mischief makers.”

He advised the public to rely only on official communication channels of the university for accurate information and to refrain from spreading unverified reports.