The Executive Chairman of Kano State Anti-Corruption and Public Complaints Commission, Muhuyi Magaji, has described the foreign scholarship scheme initiated by the administration of former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso as a scam.
Muhuyi, who addressed reporters in his office, said the scholarship could better be described as a colossal fraud.
According to him, investigations by the commission over the sponsorship of Kano students to Egypt, showed that a former commissioner and permanent secretary (names withheld) in the last administration, conspired with a consultant to allegedly defraud the state.
He said: “From the evidence at our disposal, there are some people, who are directly or indirectly benefiting from the said funds here in Kano, and are trying to ensure status quo is maintained to cover their atrocities.
“It is the opinion of this commission that the entire scholarship process is fraudulent, and the perpetrators are continually making moves to cover their atrocities.”
The anti-graft boss lamented that effort by the commission to dissuade the government to stop the scheme, to rescue it from losing money, were unsuccessful.
Following this development, the commission, in partnership with Interpol and other relevant agencies, is working to retrieve the money paid for the scheme.
According to him, over $600,000 was paid to a supposed consultant, which was later discovered to be money laundered as kick back to some beneficiaries.
He said it was time to end the massive looting of public funds under the guise of foreign studies package, noting that most of the courses studied abroad were available in Nigerian universities.
Muhuyi advised the government to scrap the scholarship scheme to avert further siphoning of scarce resources.
