Staff of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) Kaduna study centre have petitioned the Minister of Education and the National Assembly over plot by the management to forcefully evict them from their residential quarters and allocate it to others.
The affected staff urged President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly and Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, to intervene on the issue and ensure that they are not sent packing from their houses only to enable the management allocate them to their friends and cronies. The trouble started in 2016, when the Kaduna study centre of the University was turned to Federal Ministry of Education complex. The development brought in others Agencies like National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS) and National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE).
Some of the staff were told to vacate their houses as they have been allocated to the incoming agencies. This development did not go down well with the staff who said they are all working for the same government and should not be made to vacate the houses for others.
Investigation further showed that the staff whose quarters were allocated to NBAIS went to Court and obtained a Court order restraining the management from evicting them. The situations degenerated to a situations where police were called in to forcefully move the staff out of their quarters but they were restrained.
A staff who spoke to Blueprint on the condition of anonymity said they have a tenant/landlord relationship with the NOUN management and their rent were deducted from the source.
She said that situation was very critical with the inclusion of university staff in IPPIS as their take home pay has been greatly affected
“Having seen what happened to our colleagues, some of us whose houses were not affect also went to court to restrain NOUN management from ejecting us from our houses that were not given to any sister agency.
“We wrote a petition to the Vice Chancellor of recent but we were told he minuted the petition to the same registrar who has since sat on the letter seeking for release of our allowance they have been holding,” the staff said.
An official of the Residents Parliament, an umbrella for staff residing in the NOUN quarters, Dr. Abdulrazaq Musa, said NOUN staff are being cheated and the move asking them to vacate their quarters for another agency is gross injustice.
According to him, the whole game was to press staff so that they can move out of their houses and give room for the management to allocate the houses to friends and family.
NASS, Minister petitioned over NOUN plot to evict staff from quarters
