President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked Abdullahi Baffa as the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
President Buhari subsequently approved the reinstatement of Suleiman Bogoro, who was accused of fraud when he served as the head of the agency.
The announcement is contained in a statement on Monday evening by the spokesperson of the education ministry, Ben Goong.
According to the statement, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said the reinstatement of Mr Bogoro is with immediate effect, ”with the same terms and conditions as it were in his previous appointment and as stipulated in the TETFUND staff conditions of service”.
Mr Bogoro was Executive Secretary of TETfund between 2014 and 2016.
Mr Baffa’s removal is with immediate effect, the minister said.
Mr Baffa, who was an aide to Mr Adamu, was appointed the head of TETFund on August 2, 2016, alongside 14 other heads of parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education.
Meanwhile, the reinstated official was the executive secretary of TETFund under former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration. He was sacked by President Buhari in 2016.
Mr Bogoro was alleged to have misappropriated N200 billion released to the agency for special intervention projects to beneficiary institutions. He was accused of using the funds for the reelection of Mr Jonathan in 2015.
It is not clear if his reinstatement means he has been cleared of the allegations. The education minister was silent about the allegations in his statement.
Mahmood Yakubu, the current chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), was the third executive secretary of TETFund.
After Mr Yakubu’s exit, Manya Aliyu was appointed the executive secretary, in an acting capacity for 17 months, before Mr Jonathan appointed Mr Bogoro.
TETFund was established (originally as Education Trust Fund (ETF) by the Act No 7 of 1993 as amended by Act No 40 of 1998 (now repealed and replaced with Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act 2011) as an intervention agency set up to provide supplementary support to all level of public tertiary institutions
The main source of income available to the Fund is the two per cent education tax paid from the assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria. The Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) collects the tax on behalf of the Fund.
