Fresh facts have emerged how the Chairman of the Governing Council of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, ( MOUAU), Comrade Fidelis Edeh deceived the Minister of Education Dr Tunji Alausa to approve Abuja as the venue of the interview for vice-chancellor candidates instead of Umuahia.
The development came as Edeh gave contradictory reasons why he moved the interview to Abuja, forcing the university to spend more than N50m for the exercise and disenfranchising candidates who can’t afford the travelling expenses.
Whereas the council Chairman wrote to the minister on January 24,2026 citing security concerns on campus, for the shift in venue, he told Punch newspapers on Wednesday that the law mandates him to conduct the interview anywhere in the country or even abroad. He went further to say that he would henceforth rotate the sittings of the council among the southeast, irrespective of the heavy cost for the university.
The contradictory statements have now drawn the attention of concerned citizens of Abia State who have accused Edeh of obtaining the approval from the minister under false pretences.
Weighing in on the contentious matter on Friday, a pressure group, Abia Democratic Alliance ( ADA), accused Edeh of lying to the minister as there was no security threat whatsoever in Abia state.
In a statement in Umuahia, ADA declared that Abia was safe and that the movement of the interview to Abuja by Edeh was for him to disenfranchise some candidates to the advantage of favoured ones and in the process impoverish the university.
” We take it that the statement by Edeh to Punch that the law empowers him to hold council meetings anywhere is the real reason he wants to go to Abuja for a jamboree and thereafter announce his preferred candidate. The question of security concerns he mentioned to the minister was just a smokescreen ‘” the group submitted in the statement signed by the Chairman, Nze Theophilus Nkere, and the Secretary Mazi Kanu Okoroafor
The group disclosed that information available to them indicated that Edeh cited a harmless meeting by Abia staff where they appealed for transparency in the process of selection and appointment of the 7th vice-chancellor as the so called security threat .
According to the group, ” we also heard that Edeh cited cyberbullying as another reason for the Abuja jamboree. But we have it on good authority that after his misleading and mischievous letter to the minister, Edeh has been to Umudike twice. Nothing happened to him. Is he also saying that by running to Abuja, he will be immuned from the fictitious cyberbulling?’
They expressed worries that if Edeh is allowed to start the rotation of MOUAU Council meetings among countries and states that the university will go bankrupt while sensitive documents may be missing in transit.
They wondered how staff who may be needed during council meetings would also be moved to the venue of the fancy venues envisaged by Edeh and described the move as insensitive.
The group lamented that by moving the interview of vice-chancellor candidates to Abuja, the council chairman has exposed himself as being only interested in his selfish agenda and not that of the university.
They also raised the alarm that the Council Chairman may be deliberately creating a crisis so as to push for the appointment of an acting vice chancellor whom he can control and manippulate.
They wondered why it is taking Edeh a long time to choose a vice-chancellor, something that his predecessors used to conclude by the first week of November of the year of appointment to give room for interface between the outgoing vice-chancellor and the incoming one.
Frowning at what they described as the domineering attitude of Edeh, the group alleged that most council members were not even informed before the Council Chairman sought the deceptive approval of the minister for a change of venue from Umuahia to Abuja.
” Now that the minister is aware that he has been deceived and lied to by Edeh, he should do the needful. Now that it has been established that there is no security threat in Abia state, the venue for the interview of vice-chancellor candidates should be reverted to Umuahia”, the group submitted.
