Kadpoly lecturers, management clash over alleged diversion of property sale p

Lecturers and the management of Kaduna Polytechnic (Kadpoly) are trading words over the allegations of sales of houses and other properties belonging to the institution, with the proceeds worth billions of naira allegedly diverted to private coffers.

The Polytechnic lecturers have written a petition to the House of Representatives regarding the sale of the houses, including the sale of carve-out lands and other properties.

The House Committee on Public Petitions subsequently invited the management of the Polytechnic to defend itself over the allegations of the sale of government properties in the tertiary institution without remitting the proceeds to the government treasury.

Besides, the Rector, Dr Suleiman Umar, told journalists at the weekend that the management has successfully defended itself against the allegations before the House of Representatives Committee brought by the lecturers, while also adding that the Polytechnic management has no intention of punishing those who wrote the petition.

However, the management declined to speak on how it defended itself on the sale of the various properties, and whether the proceeds realised were paid to the government-dedicated account or not.

Meanwhile, in the petition signed by the representative of the Polytechnic lecturers, Dr. Jacob Zarma, and addressed to the House Committee on Public Assets, titled “Petition on Carve-Out of Kaduna Polytechnic Properties, Sale of Federal Government Properties, and Diversion of Funds to Personal Accounts,” he said, “We are staff of Kaduna Polytechnic, having served the institution for periods ranging from 15 years to 42 years in active capacities. We were all allocated housing quarters within different areas owned by the institution, and we have spent so much money renovating these houses to make them safe and comfortable for ourselves and our families from our incomes.”

According to him, after the Polytechnic sold the houses to workers, the management, through some officials, embarked on a mission of carving out several hectares of land from the houses occupied by staff and sold them to private individuals.

Zarma listed the affected places where the residences of the workers are located, and affected by the land carve-out, including Lemu Road quarters, Panteka quarters, Crescent Road, Kashim Ibrahim Way, Dala Road, Gwari Crescent, Unguwar Rimi, Club Court South, Zamfara Road, Buba Yero Road, By-Pass Quarters, and Polytechnic farm.

He said that after the lecturers and other workers were given the authorization to buy the houses, “in the year 2022, the Presidential Implementation Committee (P.I.C.) issued us with expression of interest forms to indicate interest in buying the Federal Government landed properties on an owner-occupier basis. We indicated interest by filling and signing the form and returning the same after payment of the consideration fees stipulated. We were issued offer letters, which we signed, accepted, and paid the 10% acceptance fee as required into the federal government TSA account.

“We were issued with a Technical Drawing Plan (TDP) showing the dimensions and square metres of our houses, as done by a surveyor, Nura Usman/Gimba Elisha Gimba, appointed by the Presidential Implementation Committee (P.I.C.). We signed the necessary columns. Later we learned that the TDPs are two, each showing different area square metres on the same property. We all complied and paid fully for the properties.

“It was after we had completed payment that one Abdulrahman Tanko Usman, Abubakar Isa Jibril from the Works Department of Kaduna Polytechnic, Abdullahi Mohammed from the Establishment Department of Kaduna Polytechnic, and Hayatudeen Mohammed from the P.I.C. came around with a surveyor named Gimba Elisha Gimba and started carving out greater parts of the lands and selling them to people who are not even staff of Kaduna Polytechnic.”

Zarma, however, alleged that all the proceeds realised from the sale of the land carve-out, running into billions of naira, were paid into the private accounts of top management benefactors or their fronts.

Besides, the petitioner also demanded that the Polytechnic management account for the alleged division of the institution’s computers, generators, vehicles, and other properties that could no longer be found in the Polytechnic.

“At the ICT centre, there are three structures on three campuses—Barnawa, Ungwar Rimi, and Tudun Wada—each fully equipped with 120 desktop computers, printers, UPS, and furniture. Around February 2024, the current Rector, Dr. Suleiman Umar, Registrar Dr Sani Musa, Abdulrahman Usman Tanko, and Abubakar Isa Jibril removed everything and sold them without the consent of the Governing Council, and the money was never remitted to the school account. Rather, to cover their activities, they decided to retain the buildings and utilise them for different purposes. It’s important to state here that the sales of these assets were not done through the due process,” Zarma alleged.

Meanwhile, the House Committee on Public Petitions acknowledged the receipt of the complaints from the Polytechnic workers and summoned many top-ranking officers of the institution and the management to the National Assembly over the crisis.

Shedding light on the invitation by the House Committee, the Rector, who was represented by the Head of Information and Protocol Unit, Godwin Benjamin, told journalists, “I am directed by the Rector to inform you that the response to the petition you said some of our staff submitted to the National Assembly and that they have been persecuted; the response is this: the management has successfully explained and defended themselves before the committee. And no staff is being persecuted for writing the petition. That is the response of the management; no staff is being persecuted.”

When asked to speak on the allegation about the carve-out and whether the lecturers want the carve-out to be reversed, he said, “I have told you what the Rector said, and I will not go beyond that.”

However, on the issue of diversion of proceeds from the sales of other properties, he added, “It is cheap blackmail.”