By Felix Khanoba
The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has dismissed reports making rounds in some quarters that it has embarked on a massive recruitment exercise.
The University, in a statement made available to The AUTHORITY in Abuja on Thursday, described the reports as fake news.
The statement signed by Mr Sheme Ibrahim, director, media and publicity of NOUN, said “this fake news is being orchestrated by an obscure website calling itself jobcenternigeria.com.
“The website’s false alarm, published on 20th June, 2020, was mischievously headlined as ‘Massive Recruitment at NOUN.”
The statement said NOUN has no recruitment drive for either teaching or non-teaching staff or junior staff at the moment and is not recruiting any staff in any category.
The University said after following the due process, it stopped all recruitment after joining the government’s new salary platform-the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) in October, 2019.
“The University joined the IPPS system as ordered by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, and with that, has closed all recruitment of all categories of staff indefinitely.
“It is obvious that jobcentrenigeria.com was designed to be scamming millions of Nigerians into believing there are vacancies in respected institutions such as NOUN. Perhaps its promoters were recruited by elements within and or outside NOUN to create a Denial of Service (DOS) application attack on the university in the public domain, giving the impression of a secretive recruitment drive.
“For the record, NOUN does not employ any staff without following the necessary steps for recruitment of any staff in a federal organisation,” the statement said.
The University also stated that it stopped operating a “School” system in 2016 when it started using the “Faculty” system for its academic units.
“The fact that jobcentrenigeria is still calling the Faculties schools reflects the mischievous and ignorant nature of the organisation and its calculated attempt to tarnish the image of the Management of the university.
“The website also revealed its ignorance further by claiming that the University has vacancies in some listed Study Centres. This is another blatant lie.
“Each of the Study Centres listed has a fully functioning, highly qualified director who has been a staff of the university for more than five years.
“The University is not unmindful of the desperation of saboteurs of the excellent achievements and giant strides made by the present Management in the last four years and is therefore using scam sites such as jobcentralnigeria to tarnish the image of these achievements.
“However, it remains undeterred in ensuring that Nigerians have affordable access to quality education, at any place, at their pace.
“Jobcentralnigeria has no authority to declare vacancies on behalf of NOUN. As such, the university is considering legal action on the site and its owners to protect its name and integrity,” the statement added.
