A coalition of Sokoto State Students on Tuesday dismissed alleged financial misconduct against the Special Adviser to Governor Ahmad Aliyu on Student Matters, Abubakar Salame.

This is contained in a statement to journalists by the Chairman and Secretary of the 23 Local Government Forum of Coordinators in the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Ra’is Umar and Shu’aibu Nasir in Sokoto.

The students’ representatives said the essence of their action was to clear Mr Salame of alleged misconduct in students’ bursary scheme, in view of the fact that students were directly involved in the matter.

The statement indicated, “As a coalition of 23 local government areas of Sokoto State 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 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.’’

According to them, the office of the special adviser on student matters had served 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 payments directly to the university and there were no funds managed by the coalition or office of the special adviser.

The coalition added, “The coalition further explained that some students were omitted due to issues associated with Remita payment platform, where some students’ National Identification Numbers have not been registered under Sokoto local governments.

”During verification exercise, some students faced Remita challenges, while some indigenes verification was handled through their district heads due to indigene status complications. Some students also faced university system issues, such as technical errors or academic inadequacies which delayed their payment. At present, a committee is verifying the cases and currently working with the state government to finalise their payments.’’

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 the 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 the procedures were openly communicated to the students through various platforms, while inviting those with issues to come forward for resolution.

Recall that a group of students, led by Usman Yahuza, alleged that while the state government approved tuition fee payment for 5,994 students at UDUS, only 5,290 students received their payment, leaving 774 unpaid.

The group accused the special adviser on student matters, Mr Salame, of failure to settle their tuition fees despite the funds provided by the state governor.  

(NAN)