By FEMI OGUNSHOLA

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

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

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

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the committee had summoned the Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Suleiman Umar.

Also invited for investigation were Perm Sec., the Ministry of Education, and the Head of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC), as well as the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).

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.

Kuye, however, said that the specific date, time, and venue for their appearance would be communicated to them later.

Kuye 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.

NAN reports that the petitioners had lamented over how 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 leaders of the petitioners, Dr Omale Apochi and Isiaka Bankole, alleged that most of the teaching and non-teaching staff were not aware of the sale of the houses and plots of land belonging to the institution.

Mr Bala Sanusi, Head of the Presidential Implementation Committee, said in his submission that the issue of leasing the polytechnic plots of land and houses had resulted in a legal battle.

This, he said, lasted for over 10 years, but the issue was later resolved through an out-of-court settlement.

According to Sanusi, the agreement reached by the parties led to the resolution, which was approved by the Kaduna Polytechnic Board, PIC, and Secretary to the Federal Government.

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

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