Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
No fewer than 16 beneficiaries of the Omega Power Ministry (OPM) scholarships have left the shores of Nigeria for Turkey to continue their university education.
Founder and General Overseer of OPM Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere, who made the disclosure in a chat with newsmen on Friday revealed that all the students departed the country on Thursday night.
Chinyere further noted that the beneficiaries majorly from less privileged families, have been enrolled for full scholarship, including feeding and accommodation, to study various degree courses in Kirklareli University Turkey for a duration of four and five years.
“By the grace of God I have been sending children abroad to study in the last 10 years. They go to Canada, Cyprus, U.S. South Africa and UK but this time we sent them to Turkey.
“We have not sent them in bulk before but now, we conducted examination for some students in Port Harcourt, Rivers and in Anambra and some of them scaled through, so, we decided to sponsor their education.
“Those involved are those that finished secondary school but have stayed at home for over five years because their parents had no money to send them to University.
“We are doing this because of the potential in these children which will not only benefit the family but the entire nation, so, we cannot allow these potentials to be wasted.
“No matter how intelligent you are, if you did not go to school, you may die with your intelligence. It was on this basis that we decided to select such people good result that have finished secondary school but cannot further to University level,” Chinyere said.
According to the man of God, over 5000 secondary school graduates participated in the examination and screening to prove that the authenity of their results and credentials.
He further explained that about 200 people have so far benefitted from the scholarship since the inception of the church and that they were funded by the tithes and offerings from church members.
“We took the best from less privileged families and disqualified those that also did well but from rich families.
“So after the exam we made enquiries about every person that wrote the exam to know their background and we dropped those that their parents are well to do,” the Man of God noted.
Apart from the scholarships awarded to the less privileged to study abroad, OPM had also established 14 free schools (nursery and primary), two free specialist hospitals, skill acquisition centre that had trained over 10,000 less privileged people.