The Niger Delta Development Commission has warned Nigerians about a fraudulent scheme targeting applicants for its Postgraduate Foreign Scholarship Programme.

The scam involves a fake document verification exercise scheduled in Lagos, and the NDDC has urged applicants to be cautious and avoid falling victim to this deception.

This was disclosed in a press release on Sunday by the Director of Corporate Affairs at the NDDC, Seledi Thompson-Wakama.

According to the statement, the Commission became aware of fraudulent emails from [email protected], which falsely claim to be from the Commission’s ‘Board Registry’ and invite scholarship applicants to a fake verification exercise.

“The attention of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has been drawn to series of fraudulent emails and messages being sent to applicants of the Postgraduate Foreign Scholarship Programme.

“The mailing address ([email protected]), claiming to be the Commission’s ‘Board Registry,’ invites unsuspecting members of the public to a fake document verification and authentication exercise scheduled for May 19th—21st, 2025, at 30 Bishop Oluwole Street, Victoria Island, Lagos,” the statement read.

The NDDC has stated that it has no connection to the fraudulent activity and warned both applicants and the general public to be cautious of scams involving unofficial channels.

“We want to clarify that the NDDC is not associated with this fraudulent selection process and exercise. All official communications concerning the scholarship programme will only be through the official NDDC portal (http://scholarship.nddc.gov.ng),” the statement read.

The Niger Delta Development Commission is a Nigerian federal agency created in 2000 to tackle the socio-economic and environmental issues in the Niger Delta region. Its core mandate is to drive sustainable development in this oil-rich area, which has long suffered from underdevelopment and environmental degradation