By Chinenye Festus:-
Following the protest from students who are under the NDDC Scholarship in the United Kingdom recently, who called on the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene on the alleged non-payment of those on NDDC scholarship who are facing serious hardship abroad.
The Director of Corporate Affairs at the NDDC, Charles Odili, in a statement on Tuesday, disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to pay the fees and stipends of scholars of the commission.
“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,” Odili said in the statement.
“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 (CBN).
“With the death of Chief Etang, the remittance has to await the appointment of a new EDFA. We expect a new EDFA to be appointed this week. As soon as that is done, they would all be paid.” Odili said.
Odili reassured the scholars that their stipends will be paid by the end of the week while explaining reasons why the stipends were delayed.
He said the delay was due to the huge loss they had in may when they lost the then acting Executive Director of Finance and Administration (EDFA), Ibanga Etang.