By Najem Francis, Sokoto
A committee empanelled by the Sokoto State Government to verify the actual number of students entitled to its scholarship has uncovered 706 fake students and those not qualified for the scheme and thereby saved about N30 million.
Making this known while presenting its report to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the Chairman of the committee, Ambassador Shehu Wurno, said the committee visited 40 tertiary institutions within and outside the country and verified 14, 532 state indigenes qualified for scholarship scheme.
“We have confirmed that the sum of N544, 613,724.00 was the total cost of students registration for the year 2016/2017 academic session while the sum of N143,560,855.00 was calculated as allowances to the number of verified students totaling the sum of N688,174,579.00 amount owed as students registration and allowances for the current 2016/2017 session,
Receiving the report, the governor assured that education would continue to be a priority of his administration and that as part of the commitment to boost funding, education levy was introduced by the government whereby civil servants and political office holders are taxed to compliment other sources of funding.
“We have so far saved the sum of N260 million through the education levy. We hope to liaise with the state consultative committee on revitilization of education, headed by Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, to continue our work in the education sector,” Tambuwal added.
The Governor commended the committee for a job well done and assured that all the recommendations would be implemented by the government, adding that no investment in the education sector is too much to make.
He asserted that proper checks and balances have been put in place to ensure transparent handling of all public funds in the state and urged commentators to always crosscheck their facts before making them public.
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