Coalition of students from 23 local government areas of Sokoto State has dismissed alleged financial misdoings against the Special Adviser to Gov. Ahmad Aliyu on Students Matters, Abubakar Salame.
This is contained in a statement signed by forum Coordinators Chairman and Secretary in Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS), Mr Ra’is Umar and Mr Shu’aibu Nasir and issued to the newsmen on Tuesday.
The student’s representatives said their action was to clear Salame on misdoings in students bursary scheme, as they were directly involved in the matter.
”As the Coalition of 23 Local Government Students representatives in UDUS, we wish to set the record straight regarding these baseless claims.
”The Coalition of Student Coordinators was part of the committee established by the Sokoto State Government to verify students of each local government area and oversee the proper allocation of scholarship funds.
”Ministry for local government handled and facilitated the bursary payments through funds allocated to each local government,” the Coalition said.
According to them, the office of the Special Adviser on Student Matters had served in a supervisory role throughout the verification process after which a report was compiled and signed by the coordinators along with other students union officials.
They highlighted that the Ministry for Local Government handled all payments directly with the university and there are no funds managed by the Coalition or Office of the Special Adviser.
The Coalition explained that some students were omitted due to issues with Remita payment platform and some students’ National Identification Number (NIN) had not been registered under Sokoto local governments.
”During verification exercise, some students faced Remita challenges or had indigene verification handled through their district heads due to indigene status complications.
” Some students also faced with university system issues, such as technical errors or academic inadequacies which delayed their payment.
” At present a committee is verifying these cases, and currently working with the state government to finalize their payments, ” the body said.
The Coalition added that out of 8,600 students presented as Sokoto indigenes, 5,996 were screened and verified by the committee.
They said the committee had worked diligently to reintegrate these students with challenges and ensure that their fees were covered, however, the abnormalities must be resolved to ensure transparency on the system.
The Coalition argued that all the procedures were openly communicated to the students through various platforms, inviting those with issues to come forward for resolution.
Recalled that a group of students, led by Mr Usman Yahuza, alleged that while the state government approved tuition fee payments for 5,994 students at UDUS, only 5,290 students received their payments, leaving 774 unpaid.
The group accused the Special Adviser on Student Affairs, Salame, of failing to settle their tuition fees despite funds being provided by the governor.
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