Date: 2019-08-23

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has begun investigations into an allegation of N150 million bursary fraud levelled against the board chairperson and some management staff of the Kwara State Scholarship Board.

This information was contained in a statement, signed by the media head of the commission, Mr Gbenga Adewoye and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin on Thursday.

It stated that those being interrogated by the operatives of the commission on the case include, the aforementioned chairperson, the executive secretary of the board and the board's accountant, among others.

The statement said the Kwara State Government in 2017 and 2018 released the sum of N150 million as bursary allowances for 10,000 students, who are indigenes of the state in various tertiary Institutions.

Also, in the statement, the commission gathered that the board did not pay up to 4,000 students and fraudulently converted the remaining money to personal use.

"The petitioners, who are students in various higher institutions of learning, had alleged that their names appeared as beneficiaries of bursary allowances at the Kwara State Scholarship Board but that they never received the money.

In the statement, during interrogation with the operatives of the commission, the students alleged that the names and matriculation numbers they submitted were correct but their signatures were allegedly forged by the board.

"They claimed not to have been the original beneficiaries of the controversial bursary allowance despite their particulars on the scholarship board documents".

It also stated that the officials of the board had earlier told the operatives of the anti-graft body that the students were issued cheques, but the commission discovered that only a few beneficiaries were given cash.

As at the time of filing in this report, the officials of the board are still being interrogated by the operatives of the commission.

(NAN)