Less than 24 hours after the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related crimes Commission (ICPC) claimed there were discrepancies in the financial records of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), the commission has retracted its claim.

ICPC’s spokesperson, Demola Bakare, initially claimed that only N28.8 billion was disbursed to students out of the N100 billion released by the federal government for the programme, leaving N71.2 billion unaccounted for.

The statement also noted that there were discrepancies in student loan disbursement.
“The ICPC confirmed that a clear case of discrepancies has been established in the administration of the student loan scheme and announced that its investigation will now extend to beneficiary institutions and individual student recipients,” the statement read in part.

In another statement issued on Thursday night, Bakare admitted to omitting a word in the penultimate paragraph of the statement released earlier, thereby creating an erroneous impression and contradicting the paragraph.

“Unintentionally, the word, “NOT” was missing in the second to the last paragraph of our earlier press release in respect of an ongoing investigation regarding Student Loan Scheme. The missing word created an erroneous impression that the alleged discrepancies or diversion has been established,” Bakare noted.

He added that the commission has only established the total amount of funds received and disbursed so far by NELFUND and that the impression of diversion and discrepancies does not exist at this stage since investigations are ongoing.

The spokesperson also urged members of the public to exercise patience until investigations are completed.

“The general public is urged to exercise patience as thorough investigations require time and ample resources. However, persons with information of value are encouraged to reach out to the Commission through [email protected],” Bakare said.