Varsity sends out 185 Amnesty students in middle of examination over outstanding payment

Base University, Abuja, has thrown out Amnesty students writing the first-semester examination in the institution.

An investigation conducted by The Network shows that over 185 students who were given the Federal Government sponsored Presidential Amnesty Programme’s scholarship last year are affected by the weird action of the school’s operatives.

The authorities of the institution threw out the bewildered students in the middle of the examination into DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP (GEN 201)

The students told the Network that the school authority did not notify any one of them in advance only to throw them out of the examination hall.

The students also said that their parents were not also put on notice because of the sudden action of the institution.

As of the time of filing this report many of the young students are scattered all over the institution while their colleagues are in the hall.

The students lamented while they stood in the corridor to write the examination, they were not allowed the sign the attendance for the general paper.

They are also not sure whether the examination will be recorded for them: Others lamented that the institution truncated their examination after a long period of preparation for the examination with prior notification to the parents.

The Network gathered that the students were among over 500 colleagues who were already seated at the multipurpose hall of the University to write the examination when a lecturer called out all the students on Amnesty Scholarship to leave the hall.

A male student who was distraught with the development recalled how the school asked a messenger to tell them they were being prevented from the examination because their school fees had not been paid for the semester.

The student said, “On Thursday 8th December 2022, all students offering the course titled *DIGITAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP (GEN 201)* amounting to over 500 students in number convened at the Baze University multipurpose hall to sit for the final exams for this semester.

“All pre-exam practices were duly conducted; we were searched, allocated our seat numbers and schooled on the rules by which we were to be bound for the duration of the exam.

“We were seated and ready to start at any moment when a lecturer informed us that he will be calling out a list of names, and if your name or matriculation number is mentioned you are to walk to the end of the hall.

“Naturally we guessed that the aim of this was to filter out the students that had not met the attendance requirements to write the exam but this theory was struck out when we noticed a pattern; only amnesty students were being called out.

“We were then escorted out of the hall and taken to the registration block where we were informed through a “messenger” that we have henceforth been suspended by the school from writing the final exams due to the fact that we have not paid our school fees for this semester.

“This was all the information we were given as we were left to scatter about the school. Some of us made a choice to write the exam as it was being held online.

“We are unsure whether it will be recorded as we did not get the opportunity to sign the mandatory physical attendance in the hall before we were escorted out.”

A Senior staff of the Amnesty Office who confided in the Network said that the office could not pay the schools because of the paucity of funds.

The Network gathered that the Amnesty Office has sent a delegation led by the Head of Reintegration to Base University to stop the curious conduct.

The Network called the Registrar of Base University but the calls to his mobile telephone lines did not connect.