PDN, NYF flay attacks on TETFund by desperate office-seekers’

People Development Network (PDN) and Northern Youths Forum (NYF) have condemned the recent media onslaught on the Sonny Echono-led Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) by those they described as “desperate office-seekers”.

In separate fora, yesterday, the two groups said the attacks on the interventionist agency were unwarranted, and aimed at instigating the illegal removal of the Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono.

This, they said, would disrupt the reforms undertaken by the agency.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of PDN, Daniel Ajibade, described the accusations as baseless, noting that the attacks might not be ending soon.

Expressing serious concern over the litany of attacks on TETFund, PDN accused some segments of the media of being willing tools in the ongoing attempt to tarnish the agency’s image.

Ajibade stated: “In continuation of their sinister plot to illegally incite the removal of 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 informed on the processes of the agency. Everyone knows that TETFund faithfully implements disbursement guidelines as approved by the President about both physical and content components of their interventions.”

Similarly, NYF under the leadership of Ahmed Garo said the move against Echono was deliberate and nepotistic to cast aspersion and malign his person and office.

He alleged that a professor from the South West had been paraded as his replacement.

At a briefing yesterday, Garo said the media attacks and planned protests in Lagos and Abuja were perceived to be orchestrated by some mischief-makers, bent on discrediting Echono, whose efforts at charting reforms that leapfrogged the tertiary education sector, received accolades from educational stakeholders both within and outside the country.

He called on President Bola Tinubu to ignore the antics of “unpatriotic persons”.