Civil Rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has accused the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) of barking without biting and behaving like a toothless bulldog just as the Rights group challenged the anti-corruption body to immediately arrest all the officials of the Students Loans Fund responsible for the disappearance of N71.2 billion. HURIWA accused the ICPC of speaking from both sides of its mouth on this issue.

"We are definitely shocked that ICPC circulated a press statement in which it clearly asserted that N71 billion may have been stolen from NELFUND loans for Students but in another breath the same anti-graft agency confirmed in a contradictory statement that no money was missing yet and that the discrepancies they suspected have not been established. These contradictions by the ICPC is unfortunate. HURIWA wonders why the ICPC is blaming typographic error or the devil in the machine for the confusion.

ICPC, on Thursday, revealed that only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students in various tertiary institutions instead of N100 billion released to the schools.

The anti-graft agency specifically said its preliminary investigations have uncovered that not less than N71.2 billion have been diverted by the management of different universities who had taken custody of funds.

The spokesman of the commission, Demola Bakare, told journalists in Abuja that key stakeholders, including the Director-General of the Budget Office and the Accountant-General of the Federation have been invited.

Bakare also disclosed that senior officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria as well as the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of NELFUND were invited to provide documentation and explanations relevant to the case.

Giving an update on the issue, the ICPC spokesman explained that the commission had since swung into action following the alarm, adding that those found culpable would be brought to book.

Bakare said: ?The Commission confirmed that its Chairman?s Special Task Force immediately swung into action upon receiving the report.

?Letters of investigation and invitations were dispatched to key stakeholders, including the Director-General of the Budget Office, the Accountant General of the Federation, and senior officials from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

?Additionally, the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of NELFUND were invited to provide documentation and explanations relevant to the case.

?Preliminary findings revealed a significant gap in the financial records of the disbursement process. While the Federal Government reportedly released N100 billion for the scheme, only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students, leaving an unaccounted sum of N71.2 billion.?

While giving the breakdown of the NELFUND?s records, Bakare said the ICPC?s strength of investigation revealed that the total money received by NELFUND as of March 19, 2024, was N203.8 billion.

?The breakdown showed that N10 Billion was an allocation from the Federation Allocation Account Committee, N50 billion was from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, N71.9B was from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, while another N71.9 billion was also from the same Tertiary Education Trust Fund,? the ICPC official told journalists.

According to him, responses received by the commission were critically analyzed, and interviews were conducted with the concerned individuals.

He noted that the ICPC, however, found that the total amount disbursed to institutions from inception to date is about N44,200,933,649.00, while a total of 299 institutions have benefited from the funds released.

?To date, the total amount disbursed to 299 beneficiary institutions stands at approximately N44.2 billion, with 293,178 students having benefited from the fund.

?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.?

He said the commission would from time-to-time provide further updates as the investigation progresses.

But in a sharp departure from its earlier claims and a glaring contradiction from its initial statement, ICPC subsequently issued what it calls a public clarification, stating that it has not established any discrepancies or diversion of funds in the ongoing investigation of the Student Loan Scheme managed by NELFUND.

The clarification, published on the Commission?s website, follows an earlier press release that it has commenced a comprehensive probe into alleged discrepancies surrounding the disbursement of student loans.

ICPC admitted to the omission of the word ?NOT,? creating the false impression that fraud had already been detected.

?Unintentionally, the word ?NOT? was missing in the second-to-last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding the Student Loan Scheme. The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion had been established. HURIWA said these contradictions show that ICPC speaks from both sides of its mouth.

HURIWA is asking that if the ICPC is not willing g to carry out a thorough investigation then the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can set up another independent judicial panel of investigators to look into the books of NELFUND or alternatively, international auditing experts be commissioned with a short timeframe to audit the accounts of NELFUND and all its expenditures and ascertain the veracity or otherwise of these allegations that have cropped up with the management of the huge amount of money allocated for students loans.

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