The Abia State governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has reacted over the reports that the State University, #ABSU is asking its students returning for their semester exams to pay N15,000 “Coronavirus Prevention Fee”.
The Governor in a reaction said after having meeting with ABSU indigenous students, his administration has decided to scrap off the N15k “Pandemic Prevention Fee”.
According to Ikpeazu, his government will henceforth, pay Abia indigent students in ABSU a sum of N30k as bursary while none Abia students will forfeit the 15k payment.
He said; “Yesterday, I had a Town Hall meeting with students & management of Abia State University where a fee of N25,000 per student was proposed as medical fee but slashed to N15,000 to help ABSU put in place adequate measures to protect the soon to resume students from COVID-19 pandemic.
“In that same meeting, I approved immediate bursary payment to students of Abia origin in ABSU, to alleviate impact of COVID-19 on them & enable them meet the medical fee obligations with ease.
“However, after a deep review of the agreement & its likely effect on all the students & their parents, I’ve directed the immediate scrapping of the “pandemic prevention fee” by school management.
“Our government will now go ahead to pay N30,000 to each Abia student in the institution as further support to them, their parents and guardians in this very difficult moment of economic downturn caused by the global health crisis.
“Let me also add that we are proud of the progress made by the institution in the past 5 years and will continue to support them
