About twenty one students on Bayelsa State Government foreign scholarship Scheme are set to be deported from the United States following delay by the government to pay up their final semester undergraduate tuition fees.
The affected students led by one Akpos Akin disclosed that the management of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania had given them three weeks ultimatum to clear the outstanding fees or risk being deported back to Nigeria.
Akin who made the revelation in a telephone chat with News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, commended the Seriake Dickson led administration for the scheme which he claimed had impacted so much on them, preparing them to contribute meaningfully to the development of the state. He however appealed to the State Governor to urgently wade into the matter as their deportation could amount to waste of time and resources already spent. He stated that due to the agreement entered into by the state government and the University, the Institution would not accept individual payment either by the affected students or their parents.
Akin further disclosed that the delay in the payment of their tuition started after the payment of their first session fees, lamenting that since then, the students usually go through hell to make the state government clear outstanding fees. The current fees for the affected students stand at about $970,000.