Sacked 91 CRIN staff recalled

Workers of the Cocoa Research Institute of Nigeria (CRIN), on Thursday, went into jubilation as 91 of their members, who were sacked by the immediate past administration led by Prof. Malachi Akoroda, were recalled back to work and immediately resumed duty.

The jubilant workers and leaders of various unions assembled at the entrance of the institute ‎accompanied by a mobile musical band, dancing, singing and praising God as well as the Federal Government for bringing them back after almost three years when they were sacked.

Acting Executive Director of the institute, Dr. (Mrs.)‎ Feyisara Okelana, who welcomed them back to work, congratulated the workers for being alive to witness their reinstatement as she recalled that the Federal Government, after thorough investigation of their cases, found out that they were unjustifiably sacked by the past administration.

Okelana used the occasion to charge the workers to put behind them the ugly experience and re-dedicate themselves to work, noting that the mandate of the institute as a frontline research centre on cocoa and some other cash crops could not have been more relevant than now when agriculture was becoming the focal point of the current administration in the country.

She disclosed the readiness of the institute to return cocoa and cashew to their rightful places in the agricultural economy of the country through raising of high yield breed of the two crops.

She then appealed to the FG to ensure timely release of fund to undertake the necessary research to meet the demand of government from the institute, stressing that everybody is ‎conscious of the focus of the FG to diversify the economy from oil to agriculture and we are all ready to contribute our quota to the laudable move.