Again, Nigerian students studying abroad on the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) scholarship have protested abandonment by the government, lamenting unpaid tuition and allowances.
The scholars who gathered at the Nigeria High Commission in London, were seen with placards with several inscriptions, expressing disappointment and demanding a resolution from the government.
The protest which was captured on video was shared on Twitter via handle, @2019Nddc.
These students had earlier protested for their tuition fees and welfare from NDDC to enable them continue in their studies.
As part of their demands, the scholars sought audience with President Muhammadu Buhari, disclosing that they risk deportation from the United Kingdom (UK) over failure to pay their tuition and meet up with monetary requirements of their courses in the UK.
The aggrieved scholars also lamented the non-payment of their fees for one year since they were awarded scholarships.
In response to their grievances, an official of the Nigerian High Commission in London was seeing in the video urging for calm, promising that their worries would be relayed to the appropriate channels.
“My integrity will be at stake if I call somebody else to act as the minister on the telephone. It will not solve your problem. What matters most is that we are giving you our words,” he said.
Earlier in May, students sponsored to Europe for post-graduate studies by the NDDC who were reportedly stranded abroad because of the lack of funding from the commission, sent a letter to the Ahmad Lawan, Senate President, demanding payment for their studies.
The students said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated struggles to survive abroad.
“While we had survived with working as bar attendants, warehouse assistants and even care workers during these nine months of being sent overseas without upkeep, this ‘assistive’ source of income has been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said about 25 students who signed the letter to Lawan on behalf of the “2019 NDDC scholars.”
“With the pandemic, scholars are unable to meet up with their basic obligations like rent and feeding and are living on the constant threat of ejection by their landlords in different parts of the world,” the letter read in part.
Meanwhile, the Acting Managing Director of NDDC, Mr Daniel Pondei while being grilled by the House Representatives Committee, Investigating the alleged misappropriation of 40 billion by the commission’s Interim Management Committee noted that everything is in place to start payment of the scholar’s fees and welfares in a week time.
The NDDC is enmeshed in a huge corruption scandal which is currently being investigated by the National Assembly.
The acting NDDC MD had fainted during the House hearing due to previous ill health.
Pondei lost consciousness while answering questions by the House Committee on NDDC members over alleged misappropriation of funds.
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