Senate orders probe of Ex-President Jonathan

The Senate has disclosed that an estimated N200 billion collected as education tax between 2012 and 2013 were diverted to unknown and unspecified uses alien to the Act establishing the Education Trust Fund.

Refusing to extend the probe beyond the immediate past administration, the Red Chamber consequently ordered a probe into the funds which were diverted during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The revelation came to the fore yesterday when Senator Abdullahi Aliyu sponsored a motion claiming that some institutions got multiple allocations of special intervention, while their peers did not receive any within the period under review.

According to him, “About N200 billion of education tax collected be­tween 2012 and 2013 were diverted.

“Tertiary Education Trust Fund Board granted a loan to the Federal Ministry of Education and also organised a workshop and pre-retreat in the United States of America and Kenya in 2014-2015 without recourse to guidelines of the Act.

“About N500 million was budgeted for advertising and media in the 2015 budget which contravenes the rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of tertiary education in Nigeria, in accordance with Section 3(1) of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act 2011.”

Senator James Manager had earlier failed in his attempt to convince his colleagues to extend the probe beyond 2011. He had contended that it was unfair for the Senate to single out Jonathan’s administration for scrutiny and insisted that it should be extended to 1999 to exhaustively cover all the areas.

Despite this intervention, the Upper Chamber still mandated its Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETfund to invite the fund’s Executive Secretary to appear before it to explain and clarify issues of misappropriation of the fund.

The Committee was tasked to report back to the Senate with their findings within one month.

The Senate has disclosed that an estimated N200 billion collected as education tax between 2012 and 2013 were diverted to unknown and unspecified uses alien to the Act establishing the Education Trust Fund.

The Red Chamber consequently ordered a probe into the funds which were diverted during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, even as it refused to extend the investigation beyond the immediate past administration.

By The Will