Ikpeazu Abolishes Pandemic Fee, Approves N30, 000 Bursary For Abia Varsity Students
- APC: it is a Greek gift
Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has abolished the Pandemic Prevention Fee (PPF) which management of the Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, had imposed on the students.
The university administration, in a memo by its Registrar Acho Elendu, said students returning for the 2019/2020 academic session today should pay N15,000 to gain entry into the campus and participate in the first semester examination scheduled to begin on November 16.
But Governor Ikpeazu abolished the fee and instead announced the payment of N30,000 to each student as support fund.
Ikpeazu, in a series of tweets, said: “…I’ve directed the scrapping of the PPF; our government will instead pay N30,000 to each Abia student in the institution as further support to them, their parents and guardians in this difficult time…
But a statement by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Publicity Secretary, Benedict Godson, described the N30,000 student support fund as a Greek Gift.
Godson described the N15,000 pandemic fee as the most ‘absurd academic decision and another exhibition of administrative rascality and recklessness’ from the government.
He said: “While other governments are busy slashing tuition and subsidising other charges, Abia is busy planning and executing disheartening extortionist policies against her own by imposing a compulsory N15,000 ‘Pandemic Prevention Fee’.
“Governor Ikpeazu’s tweet in defense of this fee is even more embarrassing. The proposed N30,000 support fund for the students must not be tantamount to any form of school fee or dubious fee increment, as we’re aware that they’ll try to make parents indirectly pay for the proposed support fund which may end up becoming a Greek Gift…”
