Abia State Governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has cancelled the payment of N15,000 “Pandemic Prevention Fee”earlier imposed on returning students of Abia State University (ABSU).

Instead, the governor has authorized the payment of N30,000 pocket money to all Abia students in the institution.

NGstudents had earlier reported that the state varsity had in a release by the registrar of the institution directed all the returning regular students to pay a fee of N15,000 as a “Pandemic Prevention Fee.”

But following public outcry, the governor announced on Twitter that he had canceled the fee and approved N30000 pocket money for the indigenes of the state.

The governor tweeted: “Yesterday, I had a Town Hall meeting with students & management of Abia State University where a fee of N25,000 per student was proposed as medical fee but slashed to N15,000 to help ABSU put in place adequate measures to protect the soon to resume students from COVID-19 pandemic. In that same meeting, I approved immediate bursary payment to students of Abia origin in ABSU, to alleviate impact of COVID-19 on them & enable them meet the medical fee obligations with ease.

“However, after a deep review of the agreement & its likely effect on all the students & their parents, I’ve directed the immediate scrapping of the “pandemic prevention fee” by school management.

” Our government will now go ahead to pay N30,000 to each Abia student in the institution as further support to them, their parents and guardians in this very difficult moment of economic downturn caused by the global health crisis.

” Let me also add that we are proud of the progress made by the institution in the past 5 years and will continue to support them.”