THE Vice Chancellor,Lagos State University, LASU, Professor John Obafunwa has disclosed that the over N209 million which was released by the state government as refund for excess school fees paid by students, is yet unclaimed by some students due to certain factors. While speaking with journalists in Lagos, he noted that the initial delay was necessitated by the due process involved in getting the money out of the state’s treasury.  He said: “We had to go through the Ministries of Education, Economic Planning and Budget, and Finance before the money could be released.

Obafunwa who lamented that in spite of this arrangement some students who did not have a bank account or who probably paid their school fees through some business centres are having problem collecting their refunds. He noted that for those with such problem, the institution has concluded plans to issue cheques to them.“Initially, when it was discovered that the N209million was made available, students were instructed  to go to their faculty to put down their names, matriculation numbers and indicate how much each of them was entitled to based on what they have paid. The students were also told to include their account details so that  the refund could be paid by way of bank transfer without signing a cheque.”

Opening of accounts.

Recalling his discussion with the school Bursar, Obafunwa pointed out that part of the problem is that some students’ bank could not receive such large amount of money based on the conditions in which such accounts were opened. He explained that there were some bank accounts that could not transact N100,000, adding that to pay such money in bits will also create problems to the university. For such students, he advised them to either  go to the bank to upgrade their account unit or the institution has to sign a cheque for them.
Obafunwa added; ‘’We also have another group of students who gave us the bank account that was used to pay the money, after signing, they later came back to say we should not pay it into that account because the account belongs to their parents. They want it paid to another account they can access without the knowledge of their parents. To that we refused. These are some of the situations we are confronting,” he explained.

In distributing the initial N209m, Obafunwa who said the money could not go round stated that a sharing formula was employed.  His words: ‘’Because we have a large population that came in 2012/2013 who were in 200 level in 2014, we first of all took care of those ones. After that we moved on to 300 level students who came in last year as 200 level direct entry students. When we receive additional money from Alausa, we will refund the rest of them their money.
“For the 400 level students who feel we do not want to pay them, it is because their number is few. However, I have signed for about N10m to be paid to some 400 level students. I have also recently signed for 200 level students to be paid.  “We took a decision from the beginning that we are not going to ask students for school fees if we have not refunded the excess school fees. The plan of LASU is to refund the money to them in full.

So that we will have the moral right to ask them for school fees when due.  On the allegations that the school is owing staff salary, Prof Obafunwa said, “Is LASU owing salaries? The answer is no. Because salaries are being paid as at when due. What they are referring to is not salary that being owed. Before, I became vc, there was a time that government increased the salaries and backdated it. It is the 18 months arrears that they backdated  they are referring to salaries owed.
“The government paid one month from the 18 months. Looking at the finances of the university, the 17 months amounted to about N2.2b. After our discussion with the state government when I came on board, the state decided to pay 1.1billion while LASU will pay 1.1billion. I must give credit to the state government for changing its positions because initially it said it is not owing LASU. The 50 per cent from the state government was spread over a period, just as LASU also started paying in instalments.
The first was 20 percent, then 20 percent was paid. After some time, another 15 per cent was paid. Making 55 per cent. The remaining 45 per cent amount to 500 million. Why were we able to pay that money instalmentally? We were able to pay because of the school fees. Now, we are back to schooln fees of N25,000.

Source: vanguardngr.com

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