By Dauda Ismail, Abuja
Many readers within the nation’s capital were prevented from getting copies of AljazirahNigeria Newspapers to read on Saturday, November 30.
This was because most vendors could not display that edition of the newspaper as people believed to be members of staff of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, as well as people working for the organisation went round the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, and its environs to buy off that day’s edition of the paper from vendors.
According to the Circulation Manager, Mr Ubong Ekong, he was inundated with calls from vendors as well as agents telling him about happened that day.
“At 10:am on Saturday, November 30, I got a number of calls from newspaper vendors including three vendors who have been selling every edition of AljazirahNigeria Newspaper in the last seven years.
“I immediately rushed out to confirm what I was told after informing the Editor Weekend, who asked me to call other circulation staff to do the same as he was also going out to find out the authenticity of the report.
“The Editor Weekend, myself, other circulation staff, as well as some editorial staff the Editor asked to go round, all found out that before noon, no vendor within the FCT had copies of the paper to display.
“Even vendors in the Suleja axis of Niger State, as well as those in Mararaba, One Man Village, Masaka down to Keffi in Nasarawa State were affected, but vendors still sold that edition of the newspaper across the states.
“My investigation revealed that despite the cover price of N400, vendors were offered as much as N1,500 and in some cases, N2,000 for a copy of our paper that day.
“A few vendors were engaged to go round with the team so as to ease the mop-up process. It was from these ones that I found out that the team was made up of staff of TETFund, and others they engaged”, Ekong said.
It would be recalled that on November 30, AljazirahNigeria Weekend edition published a lead story entitled- Inside Story: TETFund Swims In Corruption, Squanders 4trn Without Appropriation.
When contacted for response,
TETFund had claimed that the allegation was false as total funds received since its creation as Education Trust Fund, ETF in 1993 to 2024 was far below N4trn. This was contrary to the findings.
However, while readers within the FCT and its environs were prevented from getting copies of the newspaper from vendors, it had boosted traffic to the website: www.aljazirahnews com, where the story is still being read.
As promised in that story, AljazirahNigeria Newspapers is currently going round tertiary institutions across Nigeria to ascertain the costs, structural integrity as well as durability of the much publicised TETFund projects, the report of which shall be published soon.
