Our Undergraduates Risk Dropping Out Of School, Edo IDP Camp Operator Cries Out

About 200 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of the International Christian Centre (Home for the Needy), Uhogua Camp, in Ovia North-East local government area of Edo State, are at the risk of dropping out from various Nigerian Universities over the inability of the Camp management to pay their tuition fees.

Besides, the Camp is also grappling with difficulties in providing food and other consumables for the IDPs, prompting the management of the Camp to cry out to government at all levels and Nigerians as well, to come to the aid of the thousands of the IDPs in the facility.

It was gathered that about 50 undergraduates studying various courses at the Western Delta University in Delta State may not graduate owing to non-payment of their tuition fees.

The management of the Camp led by its Founder, Pastor Solomon Folorunsho, made the appeal in the face of dwindling resources and the harsh economic realities Nigerians, especially the IDPs are currently grappling with.

Speaking to our correspondent on Thursday, Pastor Folorunsho said the Camp was contending with paucity of funds and acute hunger among the displaced persons, urging the government to extend its intervention in the areas of education, food supply, and medicals, amongst others, to the Camp.

According to him, some of the students from the camp, who are currently studying in tertiary institutions in the country were being forced to withdraw as the Camp Management could not meet up with the payment of their tuition fees.

He said, “The situation is really very critical. The food situation is number one. We don’t have food at all and food is getting so expensive and even the donors themselves are crying with the way things are in the country. The children are very, very hungry.

“The other situation is that there’s beginning to be a drawback in their education. But they are intelligent and mindful of their studies with over 200 students in the universities reading professional courses and now alot of the schools are sending them back home because we couldn’t pay their school fees. Like Western Delta University is not allowing our children to write exams and there are over 50 there and some other schools.

“These are children who had no hope before and now have gotten good education and they want to pursue their education so that they can earn a living for themselves and even better this country,” he added.

LEADERSHIP reports that the Camp is a home to over 3,000 internally displaced persons including children, men, women, widows and students from different ethnic groups in the country.