Following the public outrage on the N15,000 levy given to Abia State University students, the Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu has scrapped the Pandemic Prevention Fee.
This was made known by the Governor through his official Twitter page on Friday stating that his government will pay N30,000 to students to support the students and their parents.
He stated that the initial approval of N50,000 for bursary will be reduced to N30,000 for each Abia State University student.
Read the statement below;
“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 the 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.”
Recall that there was a public outcry after the school management asked each student to pay an N25,000 pandemic prevention fee but after the students union government had a meeting on Wednesday with the Governor, the Governor reduced it to N15,000 while stating that his government will pay the remaining N10,000.
