President Buhari has given the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) only one week to offset all monies due for beneficiaries of the commission’s scholarship. The ultimatum was delivered by the Director of Corporate Affairs for the commission, Charles Odili to the management while informing them of Buhari’s planned visit to inaugurate the 29-kilometer Ogbia-Nembe road in Bayelsa.
Following Buhari’s order, Odili promised to make the payment before the week runs out.
He revealed that what delayed the payment was the demise of its former acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Ibanga Etang, who died in May this year.
In his statement, Odili said “Under the commission’s finance protocol, only the executive director (finance) and the executive director (projects) can sign for the release of funds from the commission’s domiciliary accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria,” Odili noted. “With the death of Chief Etang, the remittance has to await the appointment of a new EDFA.
“Senator Akpabio, the Honourable Minister, said President Buhari who has been briefed on the protest by students at the Nigerian High Commission in London, has ordered that all stops be pulled to pay the students by the end of this week. We expect a new EDFA to be appointed this week. As soon as that is done, they would all be paid.”
The students who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of the scheme were said to have protested in London over non-payment of their scholarship to allow them to of-set their tuition fee in the last year.
The student gathered at the Nigerian High Commission in London to register their bitterness over what they described as “negligence of their welfare”.
