The management of Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri Imo State has clarified that its recent recruitment exercise followed all extant rules and regulations.
The clarification is sequel to a report published in an Owerri-based newspaper, Nigerian Newsguide alleging that the authorities recently engaged in the sale of employment opportunities.
The newspaper specifically accused the Provost, Dr. Dan Anyanwu of supervising the said job racketeering exercise in the institution.
In a statement signed by the Registrar of the college, Barr. B. F. Anyanwu, the college dismissed the report as cheap blackmail and libel intended to tarnish the image of the college and the Provost.
The college expressed indignation that the newspaper yielded itself as a platform for personal aggrandizement and wanton disinformation.
It regretted that the newspaper failed to observe the bedrock of journalism practice which is that facts are sacred.
According to the college, the newspaper rather resorted to mudslinging in its report entitled, “Provost, Anyanwu in mega job racketeering scandal”.
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The management submitted that the reporters of the newspaper simply cooked up fictionalized events and scenarios and sprinkled them with a bit of beer parlour rumours.
It further stated that the newspaper prompted the fake, baseless and unfounded story as a banner with a view to elicited rave reviews on electronic channels to embarrass the college and ridicule the person of the Provost.
According to the management, the clear evidence of vendetta in the story was the blatant falsehood that the provost had been secretly employing people over the years.
The college maintained that newspaper exposed its ignorance of the workings of the system, stressing that no one could conduct secret employment in a public organization like the college.
It appealed to the public to disregard the story, urging anyone seeking information about the college at any time to contact its Public Relations Unit or call on the Registrar.
The management stated that the college is a respected higher institution in the country whose reputation took about 60 years to build.
It disclosed that the college was working seriously to upgrade to a university of education, a goal which the hatchet job of the newspaper though counter productive cannot thwart.
