The Niger Delta Development Commission has warned the public regarding the activities of fraudsters offering non-existent postgraduate scholarships to unsuspecting victims.

Seledi Thompson-Wakama, NDDC spokeswoman, issued the warning in a statement on Sunday.

She disclosed that the scammers had been soliciting money from members of the public under the pretext of securing scholarship placements.

“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 said.

Ms Thompson-Wakama revealed that the fraudulent emails, purportedly sent from nddcregistry@gmail.comand claiming to be from NDDC’s ‘Board Registry’, invite recipients to a fictitious document verification and authentication exercise.

According to her, the purported exercise is scheduled for May 19 to 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,” she said.

She clarified that all official communication concerning the commission’s scholarship programme is conducted exclusively through the official NDDC portal: www.scholarship.nddc.gov.ng.

“Applicants are strongly advised to disregard any unsolicited messages requesting money, invitation, sensitive information, or offering scholarship placements outside of the official NDDC procedures,” she added.

Ms Thompson-Wakama urged anyone who receives such fraudulent emails to report them immediately to the appropriate law enforcement authorities for prompt investigation and action.

She encouraged Nigerians interested in the NDDC’s programmes to utilise only the official NDDC communication channels.

“We also advise former beneficiaries of the commission’s programmes and prospective applicants to verify all information through the NDDC’s official website official: www.nddc.gov.ng,” Ms Thompson-Wakama explained.

(NAN)