NAN retracts report on increase in varsity fees

The management of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has retracted a story it published on the alleged increase in school fees in 38 federal, state and private universities.

The story, titled, ’38 Nigerian Universities increase tuition fees – ASUU’, was published on June 26 and credited to Deji Omole, chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan chapter.

But NAN says after carrying out checks on the story, it discovered that standard editorial procedures were not followed to verify its authenticity.

The alleged press statement was found to have been mailed to a staff of the agency who passed it on for publication.

NAN says the statement was “utterly false”.

The story was also inadvertently transmitted by NAN after failing integrity tests.

Consequently, three senior editorial staff involved in the processing of the story have been suspended without pay by management, to serve as a warning that the agency will not tolerate breaches of its editorial integrity.

“This is to assure our numerous clients that NAN will continue to maintain its policy of credibility, fairness, justice and not compromise its professional ethics,’’ management said.

The management of NAN said it will send an apology letter to Omole.

It regretted the story and has apologised to its subscribers, enjoining them to trash the story from their websites.