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The Ondo State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission has expressed concern over fraudulent practices among applicants for its bursary and scholarship awards.
The commission revealed that some applicants had been colluding with various higher institutions to deceive OSOPADEC and improperly claim benefits intended for students from oil-producing areas.
The Secretary of OSOPADEC, Abike Bayo-Ilawole, made this disclosure during the unveiling of the 2023/2024 OSOPADEC Bursary/Scholarship Awards on Monday in Akure, the state capital.
She lamented that some applicants had falsely claimed to be indigenes of the two oil-producing local government areas of the state, accusing them of conspiring with authorities from certain higher institutions to fraudulently benefit from the commission’s bursary and scholarship awards.
Bayo-Ilawole explained that the scheme’s purpose was to support students who are indigenes of the oil-producing areas by providing access to education, regardless of their financial background. She also disclosed that over 5,000 students had benefited from the scheme in the last round of bursary and scholarship payments.
“There are many lies. Some claim to be postgraduate students but do not even have proof of their first degree or master’s degree. We now realise that it is impossible to progress to a master’s degree without evidence of having completed a first degree,” she said.
“Some claim to be indigenes by marriage. We aim to verify whether you are genuinely from this area. We are not discriminating between maternal or paternal ancestry; we want to be certain of your background.
Sometimes, we look at the name, and it might not sound like it comes from our area, but when we speak to the person one-on-one, we discover otherwise.
“We have screened about 5,800 people, but during the payment process, we discovered that some were not genuine. Not being real means some could be from the school management, and some from the students’ side. We gathered all the information and successfully removed many names from the list of eligible recipients.”
Bayo-Ilawole also noted that some schools may have been unaware of the implications of colluding with fraudulent applicants, as OSOPADEC had not previously addressed the issue formally.
She stated that going forward, the commission would document its visits to schools for student verification, ensuring that any instances of fraud could be substantiated.
She stressed that this approach would demonstrate that OSOPADEC had gathered accurate information when addressing any discrepancies.
Supporting her statement, OSOPADEC’s Director of Community and Welfare, Mr. Kayode Ebiseni, pointed out that fraudulent activities were a recurring issue.
He referenced a particular institution where 903 students were initially verified as eligible by school authorities. However, further checks confirmed that only 273 were genuine students from Ilaje and Ese-Odo, the mandate areas.
In his remarks, the state governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, who was represented by the state Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Laolu Akindolire, commended the Secretary for advancing the commission’s work.
He urged would-be beneficiaries to make the most of the award and use it to enhance their academic pursuits.
