Africa Press-Nigeria:
The actual reason the Daniel Pondei-led Interim Committee on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) could not pay scholarship funds for oversea students has been uncovered.
The figures have curiously jumped from $1.9m in 2018 to over $7m in 2019 without records of grant of new scholarships.
President Muhammadu Buhari had ordered the immediate payment of scholarship funds of oversea students after series of protests by students abroad.
But the NDDC has upon the discovery of the passing of the figure, had decided to suspend payment until the identities of the ‘ghost’ names are unmasked, through the various bank details attached to the names.
An accountability and advocacy group, the Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative, disclosed that “the stories making the rounds, that the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) cannot pay their Foreign Scholarship students due to the absence of an Executive Director of Finance and Administration (EDFA), following the death of Mr. Etang Ibanga, the former EDFA have been discovered not to have emanated from the NDDC.”
In a statement signed by its President, Christie Obiaruko Ndukwe, the discovery was made upon inquiry, “both at the Headquarters of the NDDC and from the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
According to the statement, “we found out authoritatively that unlike other contracts or projects at the NDDC, the foreign scholarship is paid from foreign currency denominated domiciliary account, with the Executive Director Finance and Administration (EDFA) and the Executive Director Projects (EDP) as the authorized signatories.
