Olusegun Samuel
A showdown is brewing in the Niger Delta between the Amnesty Office and the parents and relatives of 185 students under the Presidential Amnesty Program (PAP) scholarship, who were thrown out of the Base University, Abuja, for non-payment of school fees.
The students were writing their first semester examination when they were shown the way out of the university.
The parents and relatives of these students were said to be mobilising to storm the amnesty office in the Niger Delta.
Investigations showed that over 185 students, who were given the Federal Government sponsored Presidential Amnesty Programme’s scholarship last year, were affected.
The students told our correspondent that the school authority did not notify any one of them in advance or their parents before sending them out of the examination hall.
One of them said that many of the young students are scattered all over the institution while their colleagues are in hall. They were not even allowed to sign the attendance for the general paper.
They are also not sure whether the examination would be recorded for them.
A male student who was distraught with the development recalled how the school asked a messenger to tell them that they were being prevented from the examination because their school fees had not been paid for the semester.
The student said: “On Thursday, December 8, 2022, over 500 students offering the course titled “Digital Entrepreneurship GEN201” at the Baze University’s multipurpose hall were seated for the final exams for this semester.
“All pre exam practices were duly conducted as we were searched, allocated our seat numbers and schooled on the rules by which we were to be bound for the duration of the exam.
“We were seated and ready to start at any moment when a lecturer informed us that he will be calling out a list of names, and if your name or matriculation number is mentioned you are to walk to the end of the hall.
“Naturally we guessed that the aim of this was to filter out the students that had not met the attendance requirements to write the exam but this theory was struck out when we noticed a pattern: only amnesty students were being called out.
“We were then escorted out of the hall and taken to the registration block where we were informed through a “messenger” that we have henceforth been suspended by the school from writing the final exams due to the fact that we have not paid our school fees for this semester.
“This was all the information we were given as we were left to scatter about the school. Some of us made a choice to write the exam as it was being held online.
“We were unsure whether it will be recorded as we did not get the opportunity to sign the mandatory physical attendance in the hall before we were escorted out.”
A senior staff of the Amnesty Office who confided in our correspondent said that the office could not pay the school fees because of paucity of funds.
It was gathered that the Amnesty Office has sent a delegation led by the Head of Reintegration to Base University to stop the curious conduct.
