The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC has recanted it’s earlier accusation of fraud against the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND.
This is as the anti graft agency admitted to have made an error in the statement it released alleging misappropriation and discrepancies in the disbursement of student loans.
The recanting was contained in a statement signed by ICPC spokesman on Thursday.
He noted that about N71 billion out of N100 billion released for the programme is unaccounted for.
Reacting, NELFUND, swiftly denied the ICPC allegations. This is as it described the media report as “false, grossly irresponsible, and damaging” to the integrity of the programme.
The ICPC also issued another statement to discredit admitting error in a separate statement.
Shedding more light on the controversy during an interview with the BBC Hausa service on Friday, ICPC Chairman, Musa Aliyu, clarified that the statement was released in error.
He explained that the agency’s investigation is focused on universities suspected of not disbursing the funds sent to them for students. Not an investigation into NELFUND itself.
He said, “What NELFUND does is transfer the tuition fees directly to the schools. And send living allowances directly to the students’ accounts. These transfers are made simultaneously.
“What is happening is that students have complained that while NELFUND has sent their living allowances, the schools claim not to have received their tuition fees.”
Aliyu added that another complaint from students is that schools are overcharging them from the tuition funds that were disbursed.
He said, “The truth is that there is no money suspected to have gone missing from the student loan disbursement. What we are investigating is the money sent to the schools.”
“It was an error, and everyone makes mistakes. We have now come forward to provide the correct details of the matter,” Aliyu said.