Succour has come the way of stranded scholarship students of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) studying in various schools abroad, as President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered payment of their fees and stipends.
The Director, Corporate Affairs at the NDDC, Charles Odili, said in a statement that President Buhari conveyed the directive to the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
According to Odili, the delay was sequel to the death in May, of the then Acting Executive Director, Finance and Administration (EDFA) of the Commission, Chief Ibanga Etang, adding the students would be paid by the end of the week.
“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. 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”, Odili said.
He also disclosed that the Commission had extended an invitation to President Buhari to inaugurate the 29-kilometre Ogbia-Nembe Road in Bayelsa State.
According to him, the road project, which cost N24 billion was built in conjunction with the Shell Petroleum Development Company, (SPDC) to connect 14 communities.
The 2018 and 2019 students had during a protest on Tuesday at the Nigeria High Commission office in London lamented that they had been abandoned by the Nigerian government and left to survive in foreign countries.