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The Delta State Government says it has not cancelled payment of bursary awards to students of the state origin in institutions of higher learning.

The Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah making the clarification, said in a statement that indeed over 8,600 of Delta State origin in 70 tertiary institutions across the country have received payments from the State’s Bursary and Scholarship Board for the 2015/2016 academic session, contrary to insinuations that the scheme has been cancelled by the state government.

The statement released in Asaba on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, disclosed that the Board commenced payments of the bursary for the 2015/2016 academic year since May 11, 2017 to various tertiary institutions across the country, adding that the payment of the bursary to students was currently on.

Mr. Ukah disclosed that through the self verification exercise introduced by the Board, many irregularities such as multiple registrations by students, participation of non indigenes in the exercise as well as persons who had since graduated were discovered.

He also disclosed that during the verification exercise, it was discovered that out of the 16, 499 students that applied for the state Government Bursary and scholarship programme, only 14, 614 students were qualified to receive the state bursary.
He blamed the cause of the delay in the payment of bursary to students, on the attitude of the authorities and management of some higher institutions for the late submission of the list of students of Delta State origin in their various institutions to the Board for verification.

He cited Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, which received their request letter from the Board in March and responded in August, University of Benin, Benin City, which received their own on the 15th of March but responded on the 10th of July and sent in a second list on the 18th of September, University of Illorin, Illorin, which received theirs on the 21st of March but responded on the 31st of August and Delta State University, Abraka, which received their letter on the 13th of March but responded on the 14th of August as some of the offending institutions.

Mr. Ukah stated that following the cyber attack on the Delta State Bursary and Scholarship Board website, the portal would soon be reopened to the public to commence online registrations.
The statement warned students who are not of Delta State origin not to register for the state Bursary scheme as they would be fished out and made to face the full weight of the law. .