The Niger Delta Development Commission has raised the alarm over a growing scam involving fake postgraduate scholarship offers being circulated by fraudsters.
In a statement issued in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, on Sunday, the commission’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Mrs Seledi Thompson-Wakama, cautioned the public against falling victim to individuals falsely claiming to represent the NDDC.
Thompson-Wakama revealed that these fraudsters have been targeting unsuspecting individuals with fake promises of securing postgraduate scholarships in exchange for money.
“The attention of the NDDC has been drawn to fraudulent emails and messages sent to applicants of the commission’s Postgraduate Foreign Scholarship Programme,” she stated.
According to her, the deceptive emails, sent from the address nddcregistry@gmail.com, claim to originate from the NDDC’s so-called ‘Board Registry’ and invite recipients to a bogus document verification and authentication exercise.
She said the alleged event is said to hold between May 19 and May 21 at Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
“Members of the public are hereby advised that the NDDC has no affiliation with this fraudulent selection process,” Thompson-Wakama emphasized.
To clear any doubts, she reiterated that the commission only communicates scholarship-related matters through its official platform: www.scholarship.nddc.gov.ng.
“Applicants are strongly advised to disregard any unsolicited messages requesting money, invitations, sensitive information, or offering scholarship placements outside of the official NDDC procedures,” she added.
She called on anyone who receives such deceptive messages to promptly report them to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for proper investigation.
In her final remarks, Thompson-Wakama urged all interested Nigerians and former beneficiaries to rely solely on NDDC’s verified communication outlets.
“We also advise former beneficiaries of the commission’s programmes and prospective applicants to verify all information through the NDDC’s official website: www.nddc.gov.ng,” she concluded.
