Again, NDDC In Bad News, Abandons 2018 Scholarship Students Now Protesting

Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a supposed development that is wallowing in alleged massive corruption, is in the bad news again. This time, 94 Nigerian students abandoned by the Commission abroad are protesting in front of the Nigeria High Commission in London.

The protesting students were sponsored by NDDC in 2018 for further studies. The aggrieved students have threatened to press on with the protest till next week.

Before this nasty development, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) quizzed top officials of the Commission over allegations of corruption.

Spokesperson of the anti-graft agency, Azuka Ogugua, in a statement, disclosed that the allegations included diversion of funds, procurement fraud and misappropriation of COVID-19 funds.

“Top officials of the agency are being investigated for their complicity in an alleged diversion of N5.474 billion meant for the purchase of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for health workers handling the COVID-19 pandemic in the nine states of NDDC.

“The commission is also investigating the payments of millions of Naira to staff of the agency for foreign training during the COVID-19 full lockdown which were never attended; the non-payment of entitlements to students on foreign scholarships.”

Others are sales of backdated contract letters and awards of contracts that were not captured in the budget.

ICPC said it had retrieved relevant documents and will continue investigations towards the recovery of diverted funds, assuring that there will be prosecution of individuals found to have breached the law.

Recently, the National Assembly also concluded a probe of the agency. Its report revealed how the management led by Kemebradikumo Pondei spent billions as COVID-19 palliatives for NDDC staff.

In the mean time, the protesting students are bearing placards with various inscriptions in front of the Nigeria High Commission in London. They said the protest is over the non-release of funds for their scholarship for two years after being verified twice.

They said the non-payment of their fees have exposed them to numerous dangers including the COVID-19 virus as some of them have to work in care homes to raise funds.

“We are here to protest the non-payment of our school fees and allowance for the past two years. We have carried out a series of protests at this embassy but unfortunately, there was no positive response from the NDDC.

“They said our payment will be made by October 12th after the verification exercise has been concluded. From then till now, our tuition fees and upkeep have not been paid. They keep promising us on a weekly basis. We are tired of all these fake promises”, one of the students said.

They are also lamenting that they now live from hand to mouth and depend on menial jobs for funding.

They are therefore appealing to the Federal Government use presidential authority to demand that the NDDC pay 2018 NDDC scholarship students as soon as possible.

 

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