The management of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) has issued a clarification stating that its newly appointed Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ursula Ngozi Akanwa, played no role in the institution’s recent staff recruitment exercise.

In a statement signed by the Head of Public Relations and Protocol, Anyaso Anyaso, the university explained that the recruitment process, including the capture of successful applicants for payroll, had already been concluded before March 1, 2026, when Prof. Akanwa assumed office as the university’s 7th Vice-Chancellor.

According to the statement, the Federal Government approved a waiver for the recruitment of 426 staff, a figure also endorsed by the University’s Governing Council. However, appointment letters were reportedly issued to 618 persons, while 553 names were captured on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS). The statement added that the system ultimately uploaded only the 426 positions approved by the Federal Government and the Governing Council.

The university further stressed that the Vice-Chancellor has no access to the GIFMIS platform and therefore cannot add, remove, or alter any names on the payroll.

MOUAU urged members of the public and stakeholders to disregard what it described as misleading insinuations regarding the Vice-Chancellor’s involvement in the recruitment, advising the public to rely only on official university communication channels for verified information.

The statement reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to transparency and called on the public to refrain from circulating unverified reports.

Prince Adeyemi Matthew Adeniyi, Director-General of the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, has alleged that he personally lobbied officials at the Budget Office to secure the inclusion of the agency in the 2026 Federal Government budget.

Adeniyi made the claims during a recent interview with popular social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, better known as VeryDarkMan. The interview was released on Sunday via Instagram following Adeniyi’s arrest.

The alleged fake agency was allocated approximately ₦1.3 billion in the 2026 Appropriation Act, despite ongoing investigations into its legitimacy.

In the interview, Adeniyi absolved the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, of any involvement, insisting he never met him physically. He claimed his late associate, Dolapo Tanimola, handled all related matters.

According to Adeniyi, he first approached the Budget Office in December 2024 for inclusion in the 2025 budget but was told the process had closed.

“I went to that Budget Office for the 2025 budget. I submitted the letter and everything that I wanted, but I was told it was already late,” he said.

He alleged that officials advised him to target the 2026 budget instead. “When the 2025 budget came out and I didn’t see this budget, those people that I went to then said it would now be for the 2026 budget. We kept in touch because they said it would be considered later,” Adeniyi added.

He further claimed that a female official helped him gain access to the Director-General of the Budget Office, who then referred him to another senior official. “She helped me to see the oga. Oga now said, ‘Where is my shini?’ I said I don’t have any shini. He later asked me to meet one director,” he alleged.

Adeniyi denied paying any bribes to facilitate the process. “Honestly, I did not pay any money. I didn’t pay anybody. The only thing I promised was that if I started employing people, I could help them with employment opportunities. That was the favour I promised them,” he stated.

He expressed surprise that the agency eventually appeared in the 2026 budget after his arrest. “Immediately, there was a problem; everything stopped… I didn’t even know until they said it was inside the budget. I had already left the office,” he said.

When asked about allegations that he paid ₦400 million to secure his appointment, Adeniyi confirmed the amount was paid in United States dollars through his late associate, Dolapo Tanimola, but maintained he never met Gbajabiamila.

In the caption accompanying the video, VeryDarkMan called for a thorough investigation into the Budget Office and other government institutions, arguing that Adeniyi should not be the only person held accountable if the claims are substantiated.

One hundred and twenty-seven newly recruited staff of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene and compel the institution’s management to reinstate them as duly employed workers.

The affected workers, who claimed they were unlawfully sacked and replaced with other candidates, made the appeal on Monday when they visited the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) Secretariat in Umuahia to seek public support.

Speaking on behalf of the disengaged colleagues, Mr. Eze Ejike and Mrs. Gospel Nwaike said the Federal Government had employed 553 new workers, whose names were duly captured on the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) by officials from the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation in Abuja.

“Despite being issued official appointment letters and staff identity cards by the Federal Government, and having worked for five months in 2026, the university management sacked us on Wednesday, 15th July 2026,” Ejike stated.

The workers alleged that 127 names from the authentic GIFMIS list were substituted with candidates allegedly brought in by senior officials of the university. They also claimed that many of them were forced by security officials to surrender their staff identity cards and sign disengagement letters under duress.

A female lawyer among the sacked workers, Mrs. Roseline Okpechi, said she was unjustly removed despite her name appearing on the original employment list from Abuja. Her appointment letter, she said, was dated January 14, 2026.

Okpechi urged the Federal Government to direct the university to publish the original list of employed staff and immediately recall the 127 affected workers.

When contacted for comments, the Head of Public Relations and Protocol at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Mr. Anyaso Anyaso, said the university management was not aware of the complaints.

“We are not aware of their claims. Of course there is no claims they have because they have not written the school,” Anyaso said.