BY PETER OKUTU
ABAKALIKI—NO fewer than 300 staff of Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, Afikpo, Ebonyi State, who were on November 2, 2007, disengaged from service, Wednesday staged a protest at the Federal High Court over alleged unlawful disengagement.

The protesters,  including the former Deputy Rector, Mr. Ndukwe Agwu, two-terms former Registrar, Mr. Cletus Obi, and other disengaged senior officers of the institution besieged the court at about 9am in six Mitsubishi buses.

Briefing newsmen at the scene of the protest, former Deputy Rector, Mr. Ndukwe Agwu, regretted that following the petition by some of the embattled staff, the Ministry of Justice in a letter dated

November 23, 2010, signed by Mr. H.A Tahir for the Attorney-General of the Federation, directed the Rector of the institution, Professor Francis Otunta, to comply with an earlier letter issued by the Bureau forPublic Service Reforms mandating him to immediately withdraw the disengagement.

He said:  “We are here to look for justice at the court. On November 2nd, we were all pushed out from the polytechnic in 2007 and they called it severance, that was four months after the exercise

was stopped by the Federal Government. The Rector single-handedly sacked us because at that time there was no Governing Council.”