LASU gives external students 2-weeks to pay fees

(Nigeria) The Lagos State University (LASU), Ojo, Lagos, on Wednesday gave its external students a two-week ultimatum to pay their fees, saying it plans to wind up the programme by 2016.
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. John Obafunwa, said at a press briefing in Lagos that the two weeks ultimatum commenced from October 8 to October 22.
Obafunwa said the decision was taken at a stakeholders’ forum after it was discovered that only 5, 366 students had registered for the semester.
The VC said the university was compelling the students to pay because the National Universities Commission (NUC) had given it till 2016 to wind up the programme.
``The National Universities Commission (NUC) has been magnanimous enough to give us grace till 2016 and there is no justification for any student not to pay his or her fees," he said.
Obafunwa said 29,987 students profile had been uploaded in the university portal, while about 7,000 have yet to be uploaded.
He said the two weeks of grace was to enable the students to pay for the Harmattan Semester, adding that some of them still had outstanding sessions to pay for.
"We are only insisting on the payment for this semester for now. We know how to collect the outstanding when the time comes," he said.
Obafunwa said most of the external students protesting against the non-issuance of certificates to them were not authentic students of the institution.
"If you go through records, you will
discover that most of those students complaining are either not LASU students or have outstanding courses to write," he said.
It will be recalled that some external students of the institution had staged a protest two weeks ago at the Government House, Alausa, accusing the authorities of failing to issue certificates to them.