Two groups have condemned the recent media onslaught on the Sonny Echono-led Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
In separate reactions on Sunday, the two groups, Peoples Development Network (PDN) and Northern Youths Forum said the interventionist agency is under siege by desperate office seekers.
Describing the attacks as unfounded, unwarranted, and baseless, they said the sinister plot was aimed at instigating the illegal removal of the TETFund Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono.
This, they said, would disrupt the current reforms undertaken by the agency.
PDN spokesman Daniel Ajibade in a statement described the accusations as baseless, noting that the attacks may not be ending any time soon.
Expressing serious concern over the recent litany of attacks on the agency, PDN accused some segments of the media of being willing tools in the ongoing attempt to tarnish the image of the agency.
According to Ajibade “in continuation of their sinister plot to illegally incite the removal of Arc. Sunny Echono as Executive Secretary of Tetfund, the detractors will likely attack the Agency’s research programmes and Academic Staff training next.
“They know what they are doing as they are aware and informed on the operations of the Agency, but it is easy to mislead and misinform the public who are not intimated on the processes of the Agency. Everyone knows that TETFund faithfully implements disbursement guidelines as approved by the president in relation to both physical and content components of their interventions.
“We were there the day ASUU President commended TETFund under its present leadership and how reforms has ensured the agency is taking a new path in its interventions in tertiary institutions.”
Similarly, NYF under the leadership of Ahmed Garo said the move against Arc. Echono is deliberate and nepotic in nature, to cast aspersion and malign his person and office.
He alleged that a certain professor from the South West zone of the country, has been paraded as his replacement.
He noted that in furtherance of this move, frantic efforts are being made by the promoters of this ethnic agenda towards organising a protest at the EFCC offices on Monday by 10am.
Speaking at the press conference yesterday, Garo said the media attacks and planned protests in Lagos and Abuja are perceived to be orchestrated by some unscrupulous mischief makers who are bent on discrediting the achievements of Echono, whose efforts at charting reforms that have leapfrog the tertiary education sector, have received accolades from educational stakeholders both within and outside the country.
Garo lamented that rather than encourage the current leadership of TETFund to continue with its transformative agenda, that has brought onboard laudable developments in our tertiary education sector, some individuals are bent on orchestrating his removal.
He called on President Bola Tinubu to ignore the antics of those he termed ‘unpatriotic persons’.
“If you look at the sustained improvements in performance across tertiary institutions in the country, be it Universities, Polytechnics or Colleges of Education, you will agree with me that there are significant milestones and if we allow the current leadership of TETFUND to effectively discharge its mandate, not only will this go a long way to sustain the tempo, but further deepen the infrastructural and academic architecture of our tertiary institutions as well as create an enduring legacy for the Tinubu-led administration.”
