Rivers APC and RSG trade words over students levy

The Rivers State government and the state’s Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, have disagreed on the alleged N20,000 levy on each student in tertiary institutions.

Flag-Amachree, yesterday in an interactive session with reporters in Port Harcourt, stated that levying the students would be through heads of the tertiary institutions.

Commissioner for Education Dr. Tamunosisi Gogo-Jaja, however, described the accusation as a lie, insisting Wike’s administration, since 2015, had not levied students in tertiary institutions any levy and never planned to do so.

Gogo-Jaja said: “The rumour on N20,000 levy by APC in Rivers State is mere propaganda by a faction of the party seeking relevance.”

Rivers APC chairman insisted levying the students have commenced at the state Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Rumuorlumeni, Port Harcourt, through a circular by the school authorities, requesting each student to pay a “dubious” entrepreneurship training levy of N20,000.

Flag-Amachree said: “The collection of the fee of N20,000 is part of a grand design by Wike to use the heads of tertiary institutions in Rivers State to raise funds through sundry levies to support the governor’s 2019 campaigns. Already, students of IAUE have been served a circular to that effect.

“The plan includes levying each of the students to submit their typed projects with payment of N20,000 each, for the binding of such projects. You can imagine how callous this governor can be.”

APC chairman in Rivers wondered why the governor should compound the problems of students and their parents at a time families were going through rough times to survive.

He said: “In most other states in Nigeria, governors are alleviating the burden on students and their parents through scholarships and bursaries, but here in Rivers State, Wike is heartlessly inflicting pains and anguish on students and their parents.

“It is disheartening how we got to this sorry pass. Elsewhere, caring governors in many states are paying students bursaries and awarding scholarships, just to lessen the burden on students and their parents. But here, Wike withdrew young men and women the previous administration placed on foreign scholarships and now he is levying students in local institutions in the state to raise money for his 2019 political campaigns. This is wickedness at its highest level.

“Most saddening is that this whole thing is happening at a time the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has uncovered fraudulent withdrawals of over N117 billion of our money by Wike since he assumed office in 2015, with no explanation or purpose.”

Flag-Amachree also called on students and parents to resist the various “suspect” levies the various tertiary institutions were demanding from them, maintaining that the “spurious” levies were meant to fund the insatiable lust for money by the Rivers governor.

He added: “Let me plead with our students and their parents not to succumb to the fraudulent levies Wike is using heads of tertiary institutions to request from students.

“Students and parents should vehemently reject the levies. They should refuse to pay the illegal levies, as they are only meant to fund Wike’s 2019 campaigns.”