Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has resumed payment of scholarships worth $5.9 million awarded to 197 beneficiaries since 2018.
Recall that the beneficiaries mostly in foreign institutions had protested non-payment of the scholarships and President Muhammadu Buhari ordered NDDC to pay them.
The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio in his Twitter handle on Saturday wrote “NDDC undertakes the payment of 197 scholars with 12 PHD students.
“Already paid 5.9 million dollars so far to scholars since 2018 about 94 students are currently being processed.”
Meanwhile, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has grilled the top directors of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) over the unresolved allegations of financial fraud leveled against the commission.
Azuka Ogugua, the spokesperson of the anti-graft agency said some directors of NDDC were interrogated at the Commission’s headquarters recently. This she said was in line with the unanswered questions with regard to the commission’s unchecked spending within the last six months.
She further said that the decision-makers of the agency are being investigated for allegedly diverting the sum of N5.474 billion slated for the purchase of PPE.
The Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was to be supplied to health workers battling the Coronavirus 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 trainings during the COVID-19 full lockdown which were never attended, as well as the non-payment of entitlements to students on foreign scholarships”
“Other allegations being investigated by ICPC include the selling of back-dated contract award letters for projects and awards of contracts that were not captured in the budget of the NDDC”
“ICPC had already retrieved relevant documents with which to continue investigations towards the recovery of diverted funds and prosecution of breaches of the law,” she said.
