- Safiu Kehinde
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) has admitted committing error in its earlier statement accusing tertiary institutions of illegal deduction in students loan.
NPO Reported that the Commission’s spokesperson, Demola Bakara, had yesterday alleged that N71.2 billion out of the N100 billion students loan disbursed by the Federal Government is unaccounted for by some tertiary institutions who received the loan.
Bakare had claimed that only N28.8 billion Naira was disbursed to students as confirmed in preliminary investigation.
The ICPC’s spokesperson further disclosed that the total amount disbursed to 299 beneficiary institutions stands at approximately N44.2 billion, with 293,178 students having benefited from the fund.
However, as against initial claim that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme, the ICPC admitted to have made an error with the claim.
The commission, in a statement issued Monday evening noted that it had intended to state that a clear case of discrepancies has not been established, but had erroneously omitted the word “NOT”.
ICPC said the initial sentence contradicted the whole statement.
While stressing that the error was unintentional, the commission claimed to have only established the total amount of funds received and disbursed so far by NELFUND.
It noted that the impression of diversion and the issue of discrepancies do not exist at this stage as investigation is still ongoing.
The statement read in part; “Unintentionally, the word “NOT” was missing in the second to the last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding Student Loan Scheme. The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion has been established.
“We admit that this is not the case, indeed we accept that the same part of the sentence also contradicted the whole paragraph.
“The paragraph ought to read: *The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has NOT been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients*
“For avoidance of doubts, the Commission has only established the total amount of funds received and disbursed so far by NELFUND.
“The impression of diversion and the issue of discrepancies do not exist at this stage; the investigation would have to move into the receiving institutions and persons before any reasonable deductions could be made.
“It is hereby reiterated that the commission does not engage in media trials nor does it usurp the power of the judiciary to indict persons or organisations.
“The general public is urged to exercise patience as thorough investigations require time and ample resources.
“However, persons with information of value are encouraged to reach out to the Commission through info@icpc.gov.ng
“The earlier error, though already corrected on our Website, is regretted. Our investigations are still ongoing, and there are no indictments yet!”