Kaduna Poly teachers demand white paper on crisis

AHEAD of the planned reopening of Kaduna Polytechnic (KADPOLY) by the governing council, the institution’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) has vowed not to return to classes until the Federal Government’s white paper on the investigation of alleged large-scale corruption against the council is released.

Last Friday, students of the school protested against the six-month-old strike at the polytechnic campuses in Kaduna metropolis.

The branch Chairman of ASUP, Mallam Mustapha Bida, said the union did not send the students out of the school and, therefore, had nothing against the management reopening it.

Bida said: “ASUP has no power whatsoever to close down Kaduna Polytechnic, not to talk of re-opening it, and I want to tell you categorically that we are still on strike. If the management likes, it can reopen the school and call back the students but we are still on strike and we have the power to go on strike as a union”.

He stated that the union had made its point clear that as soon as the government releases the white paper of the visitation panel it set up to investigate the allegations of corruption against the management of the polytechnic and implement it, the union would call off the strike within 24 hours.

When contacted on the union’s position, an official of the Public Affairs Department of the polytechnic, Halailu Usman, said the management would meet and decide on the next line of action soon.

A top official of the institution told The Guardian that “the fear of some senior management personnel is that if the white paper is released, many of them will have questions to answer, considering the high level of corruption.

“Many people are allegedly involved even up to the highest level of the authority in the country, such that if the white paper is released, it will consume everyone of those involved. To that extent, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) will have no option but to prosecute those involved”.