ICPC says earlier statement miscommunicated findings on student loan disbursements due to omitted word.
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has clarified that there are no established discrepancies in the disbursement of student loans by the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
This clarification was issued on Thursday by the ICPC spokesperson, Demola Bakare, who explained that a critical omission in a previous press release led to a misinterpretation of the Commission’s findings.
Earlier in the day, the ICPC had released a statement titled ‘ICPC Launches Comprehensive Investigation into Discrepancies in Student Loan Disbursement’, citing a media report that alleged illegal deductions and exploitation by 51 tertiary institutions involved in the NELFUND scheme.
The initial statement appeared to confirm the existence of discrepancies in the loan administration. However, Bakare later explained that the word “not” was inadvertently omitted from the second-to-last paragraph, thereby altering the intended meaning.
“The missing word created an erroneous impression that discrepancies or diversion had been established,” Bakare stated. “We acknowledge that this was misleading and contradicted the context of the entire document.”
He clarified that, so far, the ICPC has only verified the total amount received and disbursed by NELFUND. Further investigations into the recipient institutions and individual beneficiaries are still ongoing.
“The impression of diversion and the issue of discrepancies do not exist at this stage,” Bakare said. “The investigation must extend to the receiving institutions and individuals before any reasonable conclusions can be drawn.”