Conference Attendance: TETFund Refutes Waiving Sanctions for Erring Lecturers

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has said that it has not waived sanctions for lecturers of tertiary education institutions who collected money from the Fund but failed to attend the required academic conference.

TETFund clarified this in a statement yesterday while reacting to reports making the rounds in some news outlets on waiving of sanction for indebted lecturers.

The statement signed by Acting Director of Public Affairs,  Abdulmumin Oniyangi, said the Executive Secretary of the Fund, Sonny Echono, only called on polytechnic lecturers who had collected money to take advantage of Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (ATUPA) Conference scheduled for year 2022 to attend the conference.

The statement read in full: “The attention of the Management of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been drawn to reports circulating in the media that the Fund has waived sanctions for erring lecturers who failed to attend conferences for which they were paid under its Conference Attendance Intervention Programme.

“We wish to state categorically that at no point did the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc. Sonny Echono blankly waive sanctions for such categories of lecturers.

“The Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono was specific when he was addressing the Council of Heads of Polytechnics and Colleges of Technology in Nigeria (COHEADS) who paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Abuja.

“For purpose of clarity, the Executive Secretary was responding to an appeal by the COHEADS for assistance with TETFund Special Intervention on capacity building and training for polytechnic lecturers through conference attendance to equip them and develop their capacity to train students to be skilled entrepreneurs on graduation.

“In his speech, Arc Echono drew the attention of lecturers to take advantage of the platform of the Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (ATUPA) Conference scheduled for year 2022.”