Chairman of Eleme council in Rivers State , Chief Obarilomate Ollor says his administration will pay the sum of Fifty thousand naira to every undergraduate student of Eleme in tertiary institutions across the country.
Ollor made the disclosure when the thirteen-man Bursary Committee appointed to screen and verify students of Eleme in higher institutions submitted their final report and data to him in his office.
He said; “I want to thank this committee for their effort. I believe this exercise would have been thorough with all I have seen though that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t do our own internal verification. We will do a review and submit it to the management of the Council for approval.
“When we came up with the whole idea, it wasn’t a mere political exercise or means to give people hope without having a preconceived plan in bettering the lives of our students. We sought ideas of some persons, all these in order to better the lives of our students. I don’t know how the council will do it but we will pay N50,000 (Fifty thousand naira) as bursary to our students in tertiary institutions, if they were less than 1000 persons, we would have paid N100,000 (One hundred thousand naira) but with this number, we will pay N50,000. There will be no removal of a Kobo for any charge from the N50,000, they will get it complete.
“For you to pay students bursary, you must consider that times have changed and the inflation rate is high, we should be able to give them what they can use for something tangible, we don’t want to ridicule our people, if we want to do anything, we ought to do it well. We know the times are tough for the council considering what we get as allocation but the money we get from allocation is meant for the generality of Eleme people not for one single person.
“Our students have been of support to us by maintaining the peace we enjoy in the LGA today, you never hear them indulge in crime or illegality, so we must reward good conduct and peaceful coexistence. We want our people to enjoy the benefit of good governance. We are not doing this because of anybody but because this is what our students deserve.
“But I want to advise our students to be serious with their studies, stay away from social vices because it will destroy them, they should step in with us let’s build the Eleme of our dream together.
Earlier, Chairman of the Bursary Committee, Hon. Peter Chutte thanked the Chairman on behalf of the committee for the privilege to serve the Eleme people in such a capacity disclosing that the committee has concluded the phase of screening and verification.
He said;”We have conducted a fair and thorough screening which involves student presence and verification of credentials among which includes Scanning of school fees receipts to authenticate it’s originality, admission letter and school ID card. The total number of students accredited are 1875 including spill over, 490 were found not to be genuine students and were disqualified while 1385 were duly confirmed as Eleme students in tertiary institutions”.
