14 medical students sponsored by Kano govt stranded in India

…Won’t graduate over N22m school fees

By Chris Onuoha

14 students from Kano, sponsored by the state government to study medicine at S.S Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Davangere, India, are stranded.

Reason: Non-payment of outstanding fees of $59, 200 (about N22million) by the state government.

The students, who started their six-year MBBS programme in 2013, are supposed to finish the course this week, specifically on February 22, 2019 when the graduation ceremony holds.

But, according to them, they have been told by the school authorities that they will not graduate if the outstanding fees were not paid.

In fact, one of the affected students told Sunday Vanguard on phone, at the weekend, that their outstanding allowances for two years had not been paid by Kano State government.

“It is so sad we have been put in a serious predicament. For almost two years now, we have been left stranded with no allowances”, he said.

“Life has been difficult for us. We did everything to notify the relevant authorities through Kano State Scholarship Board and the state Commissioner for Education but got no response. The school authorities also wrote to the state government but there was not positive response. And the terrible thing is that we are close to our graduation but the college has excluded our names from the list of graduating students, due to non-payment of outstanding debt of $59, 200 (N22million).

“Our parents are weak, they can’t afford this. Please we need your help to make our voices heard.

“We are begging the authorities in Kano, especially Governor Ganduje to urgently intervene so that we can graduate on February 22 after six years of studying in the foreign land.”