The letter which was signed by its conveners Messrs Aluzu Ebikebuna Augustine and Comr Debekeme Powedei on Monday, 5th of May 2017 and made available to newsmen in yenagoa cited acts of incompetence by the Board and accused it of abandoning students in foreign scholarships to the vicissitudes of life. The petition reads in part “We write to intimate you of the perilous state students of Bayelsa state extraction on foreign scholarship have been exposed to and the insensitivity and incompetence of the Bayelsa state scholarship Board. “That the Bayelsa state scholarship board sometime in 2013 offered foreign scholarships to indigenes of the state. “That the board has since abandoned the beneficiaries on several occasions to life’s vicissitudes. “That the board failed to pay the students tuition fees and stipends since 2013.” The group also accused the board of misappropriation of over three hundred million naira in 2013 which was released by the Governor for payment of bursary to students of Bayelsa state origin. It says “despite the release of over three hundred million naira for the payment of bursary in 2013, the board failed in discharging this responsibility despite making students undergo excruciating process of registering online for the payment”. It noted that upon its call in November 2016, the state government disbursed money through the board to settle tuition fees for the stranded students on foreign scholarship and highlighted the incompetence of the board when it failed to properly defray the fees owed by all students on state’s scholarship, which saw other beneficiaries decry their neglect by the board after the payment. They called on the scholarship board to give a detailed account of the number of Bayelsans on scholarship on its payroll noting that the students have not received their stipends and other entitlements since 2013. They encouraged the Committee to investigate the particulars of the petition and invite the board for questioning urging it to recommend the scrapping of the board if found wanting, noting that it is unfair to expend taxpayers money on incompetent employees as the attitude of the board is portraying the state in a bad light. Efforts to speak with the chairlady of the board proved abortive at the time of filing this report as call to her phone line was not reachable. However, a staff of the board who spoke to our correspond on the basis of anonymity described the petition as needless as government has set aside monies to offset the deficit of tuition fees owed various institutions. She disclosed that the delay was occasioned by the Governor’s absence from the state but that in no time, a team will go to the respective institutions to offset all arrears owed. She assured that government is on its toes regarding the plight of the student. It could be recalled that eleven student on foreign scholarships in Ghana were recently barred from writing the second semester examination of which five of them are in their final year. PACON and the Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI, drew the attention of the Bayelsa State governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, to the predicament of students of the state origin on scholarship in Ghanaian universities, who have been barred from writing their semester examinations, following the failure of his administration to pay their school fees and other levies. They accused the government of adopting a lukewarm approach in resolving the issue towards the students, particularly Elizabeth Ebikake in Knurst University College, Ghana, Abasi Aikien in University Sedaya College Institute, Kualar Lumpur, Malaysia, students of Lincoln University, America and King’s University College, Ghana.]]>
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