14,614 students benefit from bursary/scholarship scheme in Delta

The Delta State Scholarship Board (DSSB) has disclosed that a total of 14,641 students have so far benefited from the state’s scholarship/bursary scheme.

The Chairman of DSSB, Sam Nwa Igunbor, who disclosed this in an interview with our Reporter in Asaba at the Weekend, explained that the grant would enable indigenes of the state acquire the best possible knowledge, skill and training needed to play a great part in moving the state forward, adding that the good education is not for the benefit of the individual beneficiaries but also for the society because ~education makes people good citizen.~

Dr. Igumbor said that the state government would continue to sustain the scholarship scheme, in spite of the current economic down turn, in deference to Governor Okowa’s inclination to academic excellence, adding that over 14,614 beneficiaries of the scheme were enrolled in various tertiary educational institutions the country. He said that beneficiary of the scheme also cut across all academic spheres for eligible students to study in approved institutions of home and abroad, even as he stressed that the current administration of Governor Okowa was committed to supporting the students in every possible way to enable them acquire university degree.

Dr. Igumbor however enjoined all Delta students to always take their studies very serious, urging the beneficiaries to embrace hard work and shun cultism, which he described as the fastest killer of students vision and goals and admonished the beneficiaries to desist from any act that is cable of truncating their academic careers, noting that the road to success has no short cut but only recognises determination and perseverance.

He lauded the tireless efforts of Govenor Okowa, whose interesting education, he said, has necessitated the renovation of three technical schools in the state and the introduction of Youth Agricultural
Empowerment Programme (YAGEP) and the Skill Training Empowerment Programme (STEP) to provide employment for the teeming youths in the state.

Meanwhile, Asaba community of Delta State has called for a public cemetery in the city, the upgrade of facilities at the Anwai campus of Delta State University (DELSU), the construction of more access roads
within and around the state capital, the effective maintenance of the drains attached to newly constructed roads in the area and for an end to unregulated sand quarrying in the vicinity of residential places.
The appeal was contained in an address presented to the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa during his courtesy visit to the Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Chike Edozie, in the course of his recent
tour of Oshimili South Local Government Area of the state, when he commissioned and inspected projects as well held a town hall meeting with stakeholders.

The address was presented by a representative of Chief Patrick Isioma Onyeobi, who was unavoidably unable to personally do so, following the recent death of his wife, Nkechi Onyeobi, on account of which he remains in mourning.

Chief Onyeobi, the Iyase of Asaba, said that while it had become urgent for Asaba to have a public cemetery in order to avoid the hazards of burying the dead ini residential homes, unregulated said
quarrying along the bank of the Niger in residential areas, particularly oon account of its noise pollution, was becoming a huge nuisance and hazard to the health of inhabitants of the proximate
areas, and, therefore, deserved to be promptly stopped.

He added that the Anwai-Asaba campus of DELSU deserved to have its Faculty of Environmental Sciences activated, and for the appointments of its non-permanent staff to be regularised, while there was also a
compelling need to tar access roads to communities in Oko and Okwe, Asaba’s neighbours,. As well as for the regular effective maintenance of the drains attached to the many roads the administration was
handling in parts of the state capital.

The Iyase lauded Governor Okowa for delivering many road and other projects in and around Asaba within two years, saying the spectacular achievements of the state governor, against the backdrop of the biting
recession, bear great testimony to his desire for the rapid wholesome transformation of Asaba into a city befitting the capital of resource-rich Delta State.