The Seventh-Day Adventist University, Babcock University situated in Ilisan-Remo of Ogun State is in the news this time around.
Last information has it that, no fewer than 48 final year medicine students of Babcock University, Ilisan, Ogun State have accused the institution of illegally swindling them of over N46million.
According to gist merchants, crisis erupted in the school when the management of the institution asked the 48 final year students of the department of Medicine and Surgery in the school of Benjamin Carson school of medicine in the institution to pay N962,700 each for a training trip to India which was not eventually organised for the students.
It was further gathered that after the whooping sum of money was paid into the coffers of the school, the journey became impossible as the Indian embassy failed to grant the students the visa.
The issue then became a public mess when parents and students insisted on refund of their money which the school could not meet up at the time of filing this report.
Sources informed that, the affected students paid the money into the school account.
Global Excellence exclusively gathered that, the students paid the charged sum into the institution’s Diamond account number: 0027464169 with the name CHMS.
The source also noted that, the school management announced in May this year that they should pay their final year school fees in the tune of N3million.
The source further narrated that, their parents have resolved to deduct the extorted Indian training fees from their final year tuition fee but the management threatened to prevent any student who fails to pay the tuition fee in full from writing the final year examinations.
However, the final year examination is expected to commence on July 16.
The source who narrated the incident said, “The school management told the students around October 2017, that they have to make payment for our trip to India for a training and they collected about N962,700 from them, although, I don’t know how many people paid but the students are 48 in the class.
“From January last year they started going to the Embassy, of which the first batch is supposed to go on the 5th of March but after going to the Embassy three times, two days to the set date, we received a message that the Visa was not got and the traveling has been postponed indefinitely (because they didn’t give us a date).
“After a while, they resumed to school without getting any useful response from the school. So January this year, when the students resumed, they were supposed to pay their school fees but they refused to pay because the students still have their money with the school.
“On 12th of January, they then called an impromptu meeting with the parents but they were unable to attend because the meeting was impromptu.
“Since then, the students haven’t heard anything from them up until today when they got a message from the management that they have to pay their school fees because they are yet to get the money back and if they get it, it would be paid into their accounts. But because they know fully well that the possibility of getting the money back may be very slim because they are graduating and leaving school next month and coupled with the fact that a lot of them don’t stay around here,” the source explained.
But when reacting to the incident, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Iheanyi Chukwu Okoro described the incident as unfortunate and regrettable.
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Iheanyi Chukwu Okoro explained that, the India medical training trip is an annual orientation for the institution’s final year medical students.
According to the Deputy VC, the school management had successfully taken three sets of the students in the last four years to India for the same exercise, saying the recent incident was unfortunate.
“It is an unfortunate incident which the university management is sad about. The Indian medical training trip is an annual orientation for our final year medical students and we have successfully taken three sets of the students in the last four years to India for the same exercise, it’s just unfortunate that this fourth set was unsuccessful.
“The truth of the matter is that, there was a slight change from Indian embassy for medical training in India which the Indian embassy did not inform us earlier. It was about a week to the trip that we got to know about the new changes, whereas, we have incurred some expenses on Visa processing, agent fees, and airline ticket.
“When we couldn’t get through the Indian embassy, we applied to Medical Council of India and council said each student must pay 9000Rs and we paid N1.734 million for the 48 students from the university’s coffers, after, we waited for another three months, we had to call off the trip because the exams is closed by.
“But as I talk to you, we have credited the students this morning the sum of N405, 077 and the airline operator had promised to refund the sum of N203, 000 for each student, but they are yet to credit the school account. Once we received the money from the airline operator, we shall equally credit the student’s account which will make the total refund to N608, 000 from the N962,700. So, there’s nothing shady about the whole process,” the Deputy Vice-chancellor averred.
Meanwhile, as at the time of filing this report, some of the affected students who spoke with our reporter denied receiving the refund of N405, 077 from the institution.
