New INEC Chairman Fraud Story: The Danger Of A Single Story By Uche Eke

The least you should do when accusing someone of an impropriety is to get proof and evidence of the said misdeed. Conjuring stories or resorting to imagination won’t cut it. If you can’t back up your accusations with hard facts, then you’d be dismissed as a careless noisemaker and nothing more than a rabble rouser.

The new INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu has been accused of being an accomplice in a N850 million fraud involving the Universal Basic Education and the Education Tax Fund while he was Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund. This accusation is not only false but equally malicious. It is malicious because there is not one shred of truth in it. You can’t just make up stories without research and run to town with it declaring it as fact. That is simply not done.

It is imperative to note that rumours can’t trump the truth because the truth is always constant. The whole ‘N850 million’ fraud is a bunch of lies originating from a mind averse to research and seeking the truth. The truth is there was no such N850 million’. The amount involved was N722.5 million. If something as simple as the amount cannot be gotten right, how are people supposed to take seriously any other point the subscribers of this story have to put out regarding it?

The situation is clear. The UBEC requested for an amount from the TETFUND. The UBEC was clearly informed that the funds were only contingent upon satisfactory completion and retirement of the 2005 allocation. Till date, no part of the N722.5 million has been released to the UBEC. The implementation of the procurement has been put on hold due to several factors the most important being the matter is still in court.

How can money that wasn’t released be referred to as ‘stolen’ money? Where is the proof that this phantom amount was indeed stolen? There isn’t any because the accusation is baseless and untrue. It is a regurgitated rumour brought up to tarnish an innocent man’s reputation.

Professor Mahmood’s credentials and work experience speak for him. His work ethic and scandal free tenure as Executive Secretary is testament of the conscientiousness of the man accused of these wickedly false accusations.

Passing around of baseless, untrue and wicked stories disguised as the truth is simply unacceptable. A rebuttal is always necessary lest people mistake deception for objective facts.