A former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Comrade Tijani Shehu Usman has called on Nigerian students not to be hasty in making allegations of corruption against public servants based on information received without investigating the authenticity of such information.
Comrade Usman who is also coordinator, Nigeria past student leaders, gave the charge while reacting to a publication credited to the National Association of University Students (NAUS) where it accused the Professor Suleiman Bogoro led Tertiary Education Trust fund (TETfund) of mismanaging N208 billion allotted to the body to execute special projects in public universities across the nation, in 2019.
NAUS had in a statement signed by its National Vice President, Southwest, Comrade David Aridiogo, in Ado Ekiti accused Bogoro of misappropriating the said amount, without considerable investigation in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
But Comrade Usman while addressing a press conference in Abuja on Monday regretted that a student representative would rush to press with unfounded allegations in an age that verifying information is easy for all to do.
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He noted that investigation carried out by his team proved that there was no iota of truth in the claims by NAUS leadership, wondering why such a weighty allegation should be levelled against someone that is “selflessly” turning things around at the Fund.
“Our attention has been drawn to a press statement credited to the Vice President of the National Association of University Students (NAUS) accusing Prof Suleiman Bogoro led Tertiary Education Trust fund (TETfund) of mismanagement. We find the information not only ridiculous and baseless allegations but not the view of any student body for that matter.
“It is equally shameful that the NAUS VP would offer himself as agent of misinforming the public with fictitious allegation emanating from unfounded sources. We herein expressly call on the student community, general public to discountenance the fake and baseless allegations” Usman noted.
He further called on security agencies to investigate the source of the allegations as the Bogoro led TETFund has its name dotted in all institutions of higher learning to the admiration of all stakeholders.
“We call on the security agencies to investigate the allegation as we have it on good authority that it is an attempt to smear the character of the TETFund Executive Secretary as well as the image of the student union.
“TETFund under this administration has executed several special projects in public universities across the nation and also have assisted in sponsoring lecturers in and outside the country for further studies.
“It is in view of the above that I chose to set the records straight in the interest of the nation’s education sector and students unionism”, Usman added.
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