The House of Representatives Committee on Public Assets has suspended the allocation of land and houses in Kaduna Polytechnic to non-staff members.

The suspension followed consideration of the petition by the committee in Abuja.

The serving and retired staff of the Polytechnic had petitioned against the school’s management over the indiscriminate allocations.

The committee had summoned the Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Suleiman Umar.

The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Education, the head of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC), and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) were also invited to investigate.

Others are the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics (SSANIP), Kaduna Polytechnic branch.

Mr Kuye, however, said that the specific date, time, and venue for their appearance would be communicated to them later. He said the suspension became necessary because most of the plots of land and houses at the school were sold to non-staff.

He added that, as such, future lecturers and non-teaching staff would not find it easy to operate.

The petitioners lamented that the authorities of the Kaduna Polytechnic were carrying out illegal sales by carving out parts of their plots of land and selling them to non-staff of the institution. This was without remitting the money to the government account.

Two petitioners’ leaders, Omale Apochi and Isiaka Bankole, alleged that most of the teaching and non-teaching staff were unaware of the sale of the institution’s houses and plots of land.

Bala Sanusi, PIC head, said in his submission that the issue of leasing the polytechnic plots of land and houses had resulted in a legal battle. He said this lasted for over 10 years, but the issue was later resolved through an out-of-court settlement.

According to Mr Sanusi, the parties’ agreement led to the resolution approved by the Kaduna Polytechnic board, PIC, and secretary to the government of the federation.

According to the resolution, the non-staff of Kaduna Polytechnic shall not be beneficiaries of the allocations of plots of land and houses.

(NAN)