SaharaReporters also understands that the development is affecting many of those “who were selected for the NDDC scholarship award.”
Some candidates selected for the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) scholarship have raised concerns over unexplained omissions and the withholding of award letters after completing all required screening and documentation.
According to different sources who spoke to SaharaReporters, the situation requires urgent intervention.
SaharaReporters also understands that the development is affecting many of those “who were selected for the NDDC scholarship award.”
One of the sources explained that the entire process, including applications, examinations and interviews, had been properly concluded, saying, “The entire process from the application stage to the exam and interview was completed successfully.”
According to the source, successful applicants initially received confirmation of their selection before the commission reversed itself.
“After that, a congratulatory message was sent.”
It was, however, noted that “shortly after, the message was withdrawn, stating that it was not meant for everyone and that a new message containing a unique code would be sent.”
The NDDC was said to have sent “another email with the said code, inviting us for the award ceremony.”
However, at the ceremony venue, confusion reportedly set in.
Another source said many candidates found their names on the central master list but not on their state lists, which were used for documentation.
“However, upon arrival at the ceremony venue, many of the affected discovered that although our names appeared on the master list, they were missing from our respective state lists. NDDC has nine beneficiary states, and documentation was done state by state.”
Despite the discrepancies, some were eventually cleared.
“Several of those earlier shortlisted and sent codes could not find their names on our state lists but were later cleared using the master list.”
It was gathered that the awardees “completed the documentation, were issued acceptance forms, and were informed that they would submit these forms once official award letters were at the end of the ceremony.”
The source said the situation has since deteriorated, with some fully cleared candidates still missing official communication. “Unfortunately, till today, some of those cleared have still not received our award letters, despite being fully cleared and documented.”
One of the affected persons told SaharaReporters that “It now appears as though we are being removed from the list entirely without any explanation, leaving us stranded especially those who depend solely on this scholarship for school fees and academic continuation.”
The affected candidates are pleading for urgent clarification from the NDDC and intervention from relevant authorities.
In 2020, SaharaReporters reported that many scholars abroad were at risk of having their institutions terminate their academic programmes as the NDDC had refused to pay their tuition for about two years.
The students abroad had said the commission refused to pay their mobilisation fee and tuition fees.
“The NDDC selectively handpicked those it paid without any defined criteria and is refusing to pay fees, grants, and upkeep of 2018 scholars for no justifiable reason whatsoever,” the students had said.
The NDDC is not new to scandals, as officials have been several times accused of multi-billion-naira fraud.
In September 2021, it was exposed that at least N15.3 billion was paid to contractors to execute some high-priority projects for the NDDC but could not be accounted for.
According to a report by the Civil Society Coalition on Audit in Nigeria (CSCAN), the controversial contracts were awarded from 2008 to 2018.
According to the coalition, the discovery was made after it conducted physical verification of 115 of 176 NDDC contracts highlighted in the Compliance Audit Reports on NDDC published by the Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation.