Stranded scholars apologise to NDDC official over wrong accusation

Stranded Niger Delta Development Commission’s Scholarship students have apologised to Mrs Seledi Thompson-Wakama, the assistant director, Education, Health and Social Services (EHSS), of the commission.

In their apology letter sent to The Guardian, the scholars also absolved Wakama of the allegation that they were been victimised by her.

The scholars made the erroneous claim during an interview session with The Guardian in July. During the heat of their protest against the NDDC over the non-payment of their scholarship fees, The Guardian granted five (Akinbobola Olukayode Olugbemi, Ogheneochuko Andrew Saba, John Essien Okon, Chijioke Ukwegbu, Mercy Eyo) of the scholars an interview session.

“Our attention was called to the interview, upon which we conducted further investigations and found that either ignorantly or intentionally, we had been deceived by some of these scholars who had peculiar situations,” the scholars said.

“In fact, the official whom we named, Mrs Seledi Thompson-Wakama, had not done any of the things that she had been alleged to do,” they added.

The scholars said the error was a “deliberate attempt by one of the scholars to circumvent the extant terms of the scholarship that had led to the situation they had.”

“There was then an attempt to use our legitimate campaign for the payment of the scholarship funds to propagate that they were being victimised, an allegation we have now discovered to be untrue,” they added.

“We also apologise sincerely to The Guardian for this error in judgement on our part, particularly in this instance where the story was untrue.”