Students affected by fees scam flouted our directive, says EKSU

The Ekiti State University (EKSU) says some of its students affected by a recent tuition fee scam flouted its directive on the mode of payment.

Earlier, reports had surfaced that some students of the state-owned varsity were lamenting the invalidation of their school fees for the 2018/2019 session by the institution following a “malfunction of the school’s portal”.

It was gathered that the university authorities had asked the affected students to pay another school fee for the session.

Speaking with NAN on Monday, Bode Olofinmuagun, the head of the institution’s directorate of information and corporate affairs, said the affected students disregarded the university’s policy on the procedure for payment of fees.

He also disclosed that the institution had put in place the implementation of an e-collection policy for the payment of all charges.

The director added that the policy was part of control measures to check fraud and other irregularities.

He said the procedure for payment of fees and charges was uploaded on the university’s portal and website.

“The procedure includes the use of a username and personal password associated with each student. It was clearly stated that the release of username and password to a third party is at the student’s risk,” the director said.

“However, in spite of the above warning and after a thorough investigation, it was discovered that the defrauded students disregarded the policy on the procedure for payment.

“On their own volition, [they] decided to pay their fees for the 2018/2019 academic session into the personal accounts of the fraudsters rather than the university’s designated and profiled bank accounts.

“During the investigation, some of the defrauded students made confessional statements, while some of them, after realising their mistakes, had made correct and genuine payments into the university’s designated accounts.

“It is equally important to let the general public know that the perpetrators of the scam were arrested by a law enforcement agency and later released on bail.

“The university management wishes to assure that it would cooperate with the relevant law enforcement agencies to ensure that those defrauded get their monies refunded.’’