Mayhem was averted at the Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Kuru, near Jos, in the early hours of Tuesday, when the Police was called upon to protect lives and properties following a protest by some staff of the college.
The staff were said to be protesting what they described as illegal transfer of members of staff by the Provost of the College, Mr. A. O. Akinwa. The college was formally known as Federal Soil Conservation School.
It was gathered that the staff, numbering more than 50 had barricaded all the gates to the college and held the Provost hostage until the arrival of policemen from the K-Vom police station, who succeeded in dispersing them.
The motive behind the mass transfer was not ascertained as at press time, but some of them were said to have been transferred to the college’s field offices in Sokoto, Zamfara and other states in the north and all other composite field offices. There are two colleges of land resources technology located in Owerri and Jos, all under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Akinwa told our correspondent that he was not one who initiated the transfer. According to him, the staff had been transferred to other offices since 2012 by the ministry in Abuja, but had refused to move.
He said it was the practice to move the staff around the field offices, adding that this was not the first time it was done.
He said, “It is the practice to transfer staff to field offices. I was transferred from Ibadan to Jos and so I did not initiate the transfer. I don’t have the powers to recruit, sack or transfer staff. They are done from Abuja. These staff were transferred since 2012 and they refused to move. The ministry is insisting that must move. We have resolved the problem now.” Punch
