According
to a report, Ambrose Ezewani, an ex student of the University of Lagos
and former President of the National Association of Delta State
students, UNILAG chapter, who blew the lid on a systematic student
bursary racketing allegedly spearheaded by the Commissioner for Higher
Education in Delta state, Mr Hope Eghagha has been handed over to the
Delta state Government
Police
officers in Sabo Station yesterday afternoon handed him over after the
Delta State officials visited to ask for his transfer to Asaba, Delta
State where he will be most likely tortured and “tried” for revealing
the fraud perpetrated by officials of the state.
Ezeanwani was
President of the National Association of Delta State Students Union at
the University of Lagos. During his tenure, he revealed that the bursary
system was fraught with fraud, which he said was being perpetrated by
men in the scholarship board in Delta State. Continue...
Ezeawani
alleged that the irregularities surfaced since the current Commissioner
for Higher Education in the State, Mr. Hope Eghagha came on board. Mr.
Eghagha a former professor at the University of lagos was a former
newspaper columnist and critic of the Delta state government before
bagging a government appointment a few years ago.
Ezeawani claims
that Eghagha’s office had created a system for students bursary
application where non-existing students are awarded bursary by the
state.
He said in his investigation, which the UNILAG students’
records office corroborated, the names published as “approved” for
bursary awards every year where non-existent in the Institution’s
official records.
Ezeawani further stated that his research
discovered that the office of the Commissioner for Higher Education in
Delta State led by Eghagha had generated about 23,000 fake students and
bank accounts and sorts codes throughout institutions across the country
to siphon bursary funds while publishing fake names of beneficiaries in
the print media every year.
Although few genuine names of
students are mixed in the published bursary approval list every year, it
is observed that most of the genuine students are shut out of the
scheme while non-existing names are paraded.
Ambrose had led
series of protest marches calling for investigations into the scam,
however, the Economic and financial crimes Commission EFCC) to whom he
directed his protests did nothing to investigate the fraud.
Last
Wednesday on his way to Federal college of education (Technical) Akoka
some men in mufti pulled up in front of him and attempted forcing him
into their car. Ezeawani said he resisted and headed for the police
station in Sabo instead. The men followed him and asked the police to
hand him over but the police refused. The men apparently sent by the
Delta state government then asked that Ezeawani be detained for them to
go and prepare documents from Asaba to facilitate his hand over.
He
has now been handed over today to policemen from Asaba who are suspected
to be doing the bidding of the Delta State officials.
Ambrose
had before now done an underground investigation over bursary
allocations to indigines of the state nationwide and discovered that the
Commissioner's office had over the years produced about 23,000 fake
students and bank accounts and sorts codes throughout institutions
across the country to siphon bursary funds while publishing fake names
of beneficiaries in the print media every year. In UNILAG, the student
record office collaborated Ambrose's claim that most of the Delta state
students published for bursary allocations were non-existent to the
school.
Ambrose wrote several petitions to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission but none of his petitions was attended to.
Last
Wednesday, April 23, while on his way to the Federal College of
Technology Akoka, Ambrose was accosted by plain clothed men who demanded
he entered their vehicle and follow them which he refused since he did
not know who they were. He then decided to walk to the nearest police
station within the area there which was the Sabo Police station with
those men tailing him. On getting to the police station, he told the
police men there what happened and the police men refused to let him go
saying whoever wanted him arrested should come with a warrant of arrest
and so they kept him in their custody with the men pleading that they do
not allow him go as they would soon return with a warrant
Two days ago, they got the warrant and Ambrose has been taken to Delta state.
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