THE National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) has defended itself in the allegation brought against it by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) over complicity in NLRC's regulation of promos and lotteries in the country.NANS had lasted week called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt and Crimes Commission to probe the duo of telecommunications operators in the country and the NLRC, for what it described as fraudulent promos frequently organised in the country by most especially, the telecoms operators.The student body, through its president, Kolade Olaoluwa, had leveled allegations against the on-going 'Etisalat/FC Barca promo', in which subscribers are expected to garner some points after answering some questions, before they can become winners and subsequently earn a trip to watch any of Barcelona matches in Spain.But, reacting to the allegation of complicity in its role as regulator, published in the media, not The Guardian, NLRC said it had never for once folded its arms in the supervision of various telecoms and other promos organized in the country.NLRC's Assistant Director, Regulation and Monitoring, Henry Uwadiae said the publication was authored by those not aware of how promos work in the country.Uwadiae said the commission, which has maintained transparency in all promos supervised so far, never folded its arms, 'we ensure that Nigerians are not defrauded by any means.'According to him, the commission was shocked to see such publication. 'It is a mischief, born out of mischief to perpetrate mischief.'While not ruling out the facts that some promos are arranged, the NLRC's Assistant Director however, said the commission was yet to verify such claims.Uwadiae explained that there was no complicity in the said Etisalat promo. 'As the regulator, I want to stay clearly here that the organizers of the Etisalat/Barca promo have not been found wanting, according to our investigations. The issue might have been that those crying now were not opportune to win anything in the promo. And you know quite well that they might have spent a lot thinking they will win. I think, that is where the grudge came from.'We have told the organizers that our focus is to ensure that due gifts are given to those presented by operators as winners. We ask the operators to send the list of the winners and the verifiable contact addresses, so that we can double check and match gift with the actual names of winners published. We try as much as possible to sanitise the promo. We are here to correct any era of impunity.'We have also advised the public that before they go into any lottery or promo, they should verify from us the genuineness of any promo. The commission also goes to the extent of being present at the draws and we collect names of winners to further ensure that truly the winners get their prizes. So far we have not seen any case of fraud.'Explaining the difference between promos and lotteries, Uwadiae said Lottery, 'as defined by the Lottery Act, Section 57, 'Any arrangement, scheme, in which prizes are given by luck or chance', but for promo, it is defined as a reward scheme, say am selling water and I said buy one and get one free, that is promo, but if I now say buy one bottled water and you stand the chance of winning a car, mobile phone by chance, that is lottery.'In her contributions, Assistant Director, Media and Public Affairs, Mrs. Rekiya Ibrahim Atta, 20 per cent of every lottery funds realised are taken to the National Lottery Trust Fund, established by the Lottery Act 2005 and the fund is used for any good course, but must have presidential approval.
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