•120 final-year students threatened  

By Ozioruva Aliu  

BENIN CITY— NO fewer than 120 final-year undergraduate students from  the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Ovia North-East Local Government Area, Edo State are on the verge of having their education truncated due to unpaid tuition fees.

The students, who are beneficiaries of the Home for the Needy, are currently studying in various Nigerian universities.  

NDV learned that the facility, which houses thousands of displaced people and family members from the North-Eastern part of Nigeria ravaged by Boko Haram terrorists, has produced high profile graduates in different disciplines from several tertiary institutions in the state and beyond.

According to Pastor (Mrs.) Evelyn Omogie, Assistant Coordinator of the facility, the IDP camp is facing significant funding challenges, affecting its ability to support the students. “We are going through a lot of difficulties in the Home for the Needy. Presently, we have over 250 undergraduate students in various Nigerian universities. Funding them is very difficult,” she said.

The IDP camp has produced notable graduates in various fields, including medicine, law, engineering, and banking. Twenty of the students are potential first-class graduates, based on their academic performance.  

The facility is appealing for help from the public to support the students’ education, including tuition fees, feeding, and other necessities. “We need help from the public to be able to pay these children’s tuition fees, feeding, and all other things that are required for them to survive in school,” Omogie pleaded.  

“Almost 87 of our students are sitting for WAEC; we are finding it difficult to raise money for their enrollment. The economic situation in the country is affecting us greatly,” Omogie said, adding that many students have been forced to drop out of school due to unpaid fees.

“These children are Nigerians, they need care, they need government attention, and these are builders of tomorrow, so they need serious attention. We also have 76 students that are enrolling for UME, we want the public to come to our aid. We also use this opportunity to thank those that have helped us in one way or the other. We still appeal to them to come to our aid,” she added.

One success story from the IDP camp is Amos Ishiaku, who graduated with First Class Honours in Chemical Engineering from Edo State University, Uzairue, and has received a fully-funded PhD scholarship from the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. The Coordinator of the Home for the Needy, Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, expressed gratitude to NDV for its support, highlighting the successes recorded as well as the importance of creating an enabling environment for the less privileged.  

He said: “This is to let the world and our friends know that the support NDV and others are giving to the orphans, widows, displaced people, and the vulnerable in our centre, is yielding great results.

“Besides those who graduated last year and those about to graduate, more than 200 are currently studying at different universities, with no fewer than 150 others processing their admissions.”

So, we want to appeal to the government, well meaning individuals and private organisations to see the need to assist us, give us toilets, mattresses, better houses, toiletries, towels, toothpaste and toothbrush, soaps and foodstuffs and scholarships among others.”

Relief

A former Edo State governorship aspirant under the Labour Party (LP), Kenneth Imansuangbon had last year called on the Federal Government to review its conditions for giving national awards to certain individuals noting that people genuinely involved in humanitarian services to the needy deserve recognition and awards.

He lamented that some persons with tainted and questionable characters were often recognised thereby diminishing the efforts of those whose selfless humanitarian work have impacted positively on the lives of the downtrodden.    “If we have a country where things are done well, Pastor Folunrusho Solomon is due for a national honour and I am calling on President Tinubu that people who are given national honours should be those that deserve it like it is done in the United States and elsewhere.

“He (Solomon) has inspired development for the country so that people will know that when you help the poor you are developing the country,” he said. 

and called on the Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs to come to the aid of the camp.