Kogi principal bars politician from paying students’ WAEC fees

The Principal of St Augustine College, Kabba, Mr Emmanuel Abolusoro on Friday barred a member of the National Assembly representing Yagba Federal Constituency, Hon Leke Abejide from paying the WAEC fees of the final year students of his school.

Abejide, who has been paying WAEC fees of students in Yagba Federal Constituency in the last five years, decided to extend the good gestures to other federal constituencies in the Kogi West senatorial district.

Thus, several schools have been slated to benefit from the philanthropic gestures of the lawmaker which is expected to run for three days starting from Okebukun High School which was already carried out by 10 am on Friday.

However, when it was the turn of St Augustine College, Kabba, the House of Representative member who is seeking a second term under the platform of ADC along with his long convoy was told point-blank by the Principal that ‘an order from above’ said the students must not come out to receive the already prepared cheques.

The lawmaker who expressed sadness that the students were not allowed to benefit from the scheme expressed surprise that the Principal did not inform him earlier in spite of his several communications with him over the programme.

He said the money allocated for the WAEC payment was his personal funds and not that of the government which he said was aimed to cushion the plights of parents and students and not aimed at scoring cheap publicity saying he has been doing this long before he became a lawmaker.

Abejide stressed that he was one of the strong supporters of Governor Yahaya Bello who worked for his re-election in 2019 stressing he has never criticized nor done anything to undermine the governor’s interest in the past and wonder why he was not allowed to render this humanitarian gesture.

The president of Kabba Development Union, Emmanuel Ajibero who described Abejide’s gesture as novel and encouraging said the WAEC payment will indeed help many of the students especially the indigent to concentrate more on their studies while it will serve as a great relief to parents.

The director general of the Leke Abejide Foundation, Shola Adebola, however, said considering the plights of some aged parents who were already seated for the ceremony, the lawmaker will still return the next day by 10 am to give out cheques to students and urged their parents to be punctual.

The lawmaker’s entourage includes top politicians in the area, among others, ADC senatorial

candidate, Dele Williams, the Kabba-Bunu-Ijumu House of Representative candidate, Salman Idris and the Kabba-Bunu State House of Assembly candidate, Ayodeji Olumudi.

It will be recalled that the PDP Kogi Central senatorial candidate, Mrs Natasha Uduaghan was also barred from paying WAEC fees of students in Ebiraland. The state government, however, denied having hand in it.