The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has clarified that it has not found any discrepancies in the disbursement of student loans by the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), following confusion caused by a missing word in an earlier statement.
In a press release issued on Thursday, ICPC spokesperson Demola Bakare explained that the agency’s initial statement, titled ‘ICPC Launches Comprehensive Investigation into Discrepancies in Student Loan Disbursement’, erroneously suggested that irregularities had already been uncovered in the loan scheme.
Okay.ng reports that the original release was based on a recent media article alleging that 51 tertiary institutions were involved in illegal deductions and exploitation of students benefiting from the NELFUND programme. The ICPC stated it had begun investigations into the claims.
Part of the initial statement read: “The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has 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.”
However, Bakare has now clarified that a crucial word, “not,” was mistakenly omitted from the second-to-last paragraph of the original statement, thereby contradicting the entire narrative.
“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,” Bakare said in the correction.
“The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion has been established.”
He added that at the current stage of the investigation, the ICPC has only verified the total amount of funds received and disbursed 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,” Bakare added.
