Angry students at the College of Health Sciences and Technology in Jega, Kebbi State, have set the residence of Provost, Haruna Saidu-Sauwa on fire and vandalized his vehicle.
learnt that the agitators, on Thursday, accused the College management of N23 million extortion regarding the index registration of 250 graduating students.
A source in the college, told PUNCH that the controversy started from a newly introduced public health programme, initially affiliated with Reproductive Health and the Public Health Association of Nigeria.
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The source stated that the college merged the programme with the Environmental Health Department to secure certification, leading to a demand for an additional N65,000 from each student for index registration, on top of the N30,000 already paid.
Denying the allegation while addressing journalists in Kebbi, the Provost of the school, Haruna Saidu-Sauwa, described the protest as baseless.
He said: “How can one expect a diploma when their admission letter reads certificate? The said publications relied on an unknown source who presented their
own version of the story.
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“I challenge that person to come forward with evidence to substantiate the allegations of student extortion and course duplication.
“Our school operates a Treasury Single Account where all funds are paid, and no one, including myself, has access to it.
“Our position remains that we know nothing about the claims and allegations made by the unknown source.
“We are thankful no one was harmed, and we are working with security personnel to identify the organisers of the protest, which damaged my personal vehicle and other college property. We distance ourselves from the allegations reported by the newspapers.”
