The Sokoto government says it commenced payment of three years’ arrears of tuition fees for its students studying at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS).

The government had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the university to pay the tuition fees of students from the state admitted to the institution.

However, the Sokoto government had failed to remit the money for three years, which made UDUS bar the affected students from sitting for examinations.

Nasiru Dantsoho, chairman of the screening committee, said on Monday that the verification had been completed, and the remittance of the outstanding fees had commenced.

He said the intervention followed reports that UDUS had threatened to send the students home unless the fees were paid in full.

Mr Dantsoho said the money for those screened would be paid to the university to enable the students to sit the semester examinations and subsequent academic sessions without distraction.

The committee chairman recalled that Governor Ahmad Aliyu had expressed concern over the situation, which had forced the institution to contemplate rejecting students from Sokoto.

He said the former Governor Aminu Tambuwal left huge debts for the new government, especially in scholarships for students within and outside Nigeria.

“The situation in which our students were rejected warrants us to embark on the screening to make sure only Sokoto Students benefit from the payment,” stated Mr Dantsoho.

The chairman added that the panel had screened all students from the 23 local government areas of the state studying in UDUS and that a similar exercise will be undertaken in other institutions if the need arises.

(NAN)