New lawyer returns N.1 million mistakenly paid by Kwara scholarship board
The Kwara State Governor, Mall. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq today commended one Barrister Yunusa AbdulMutallab, a beneficiary of the state bursary scheme for new lawyers and law students, who was twice credited during the exercise due to network glitches but voluntarily returned the extra payment of N100,000 to the Ministry.
In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Hajia Saadatu Modibbo Kawu and sent to THE INFORMANT247, she said, “His action is quite inspiring and reassuring that this state has a bright future. The Governor hereby commends this fine learned gentleman for his honesty and contentment. We are in fact proud of him and wish him success in all of his endeavours.”
Meanwhile, about 179 law students and new lawyers of Kwara State origin have each been paid N100,000 scholarship after online application processes and verification that lasted weeks, a government statement said on Saturday.
The payment, made straight to beneficiaries’ accounts, was done in two batches after thorough screenings of the applicants.
A statement by the Tertiary Education ministry said the first batch comprised 68 backlog students who are still in the law school out of the 89 who applied, while the second batch involved 111 lawyers of Kwara state origin that were called to bar last year November.
“The verification process in the first batch saved the government N2.1million as 21 of the original 89 applicants were screened out on various grounds. Some of them have graduated from law schools, some are non- Kwarans and about 7 of them are neither Kwarans nor in law schools. The successful applicants were paid late December, 2019,” the statement read.
“Yesterday, Friday 10 January, 2020, the government concluded the second batch by paying (N100,000 each) to 111 law school graduates who were recently called to bar after online and physical verification duly monitored by all the stakeholders.”
The government also saved N5.8million as only 111 of the 169 on the approved list survived the screening exercise.
Recall that the government had in November paid N5000 bursary each to 8,304 final year students in all the Government-owned (state and federal) tertiary institutions across the country.
