Gombe law students groan over unpaid scholarship

Gombe state law students have appealed to the state government to offset their scholarship allowance which they alleged is hanging one year after graduating from law schools. President of the Gombe state Law Students Association for the 2015/2016 session, Barrister Idris Musa, who spoke on behalf of the affected students, said that the state government […]

Gombe state law students have appealed to the state government to offset their scholarship allowance which they alleged is hanging one year after graduating from law schools.

President of the Gombe state Law Students Association for the 2015/2016 session, Barrister Idris Musa, who spoke on behalf of the affected students, said that the state government had approved the payment of N500, 000 to each of the affected students in September last year, but eight months after the approval, the money was yet to be released.

It was gathered that the state government was paying the law students scholarship that covered all the expenses they accrued while at their respective law schools across the country.

Barrister Musa said government had given each law graduand of the 2014/2015 session a sum of N500, 000 and a laptop computer.

He said: “In our own case, in the 2015/2016 session, the admission form into the law schools was sold at N25, 000, while each successful candidate paid N295, 000 as registration fee. We also paid N20, 000 and N40, 000 for screening and the Call to Bar Certificate respectively.

“This was excluding other expenses which includes; purchase of text books, laptop computer and accommodation fee among others.”

The president said one year after graduation, they could not settle the debts they incurred to pay their registration fees.

“Most of us are from poor families, as such we had to borrow money to pay for registration and other expenses, in anticipation that the state government will refund us, but up to this time that I am talking to you, we have not been refunded,” he said.

When our correspondent contacted the state Ministry of Justice, the Director of Administration and Finance, Alhaji Abdulhamid Hussaini, said the ministry was aware of the situation.

He said the state governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo had approved the fund for the payment of the students’ scholarship and that the ministry was waiting for the release of the money from the office of the Accountant General of the state.