Alabama University was Sue for Treating Nigerian Students ‘Like Animals.
Nigerian students namely Thankgod
Harold, Success Jumbo, Savior Samuel, Godsgift Moses, Promise Owei and
30 others on full scholarships from a Nigerian government fund for four
years have sued Alabama State University (ASU) for discrimination and
treating them like animals, an Alabama news outlet, Daily Beast, has
reported.
The students complained that after
collecting millions of dollars from the home government, the university
started to discriminate against them.
In their lawsuit, they alleged that the
university overcharged them for books and meals, claiming that the
school enrolled them in classes they never took simply because they were
black foreigners.
According to one of the students who
goes by the name Jimmy Iwezu: “They called us cash cows,” adding: “I’m a
black man and I’m proud to be black, but I felt discriminated against.”
He said the university said it could do
whatever it wished with the seven-figure sum Nigeria prepaid back in
2013 for some 41 students.
According to the lawsuit, which was
brought to the court by Attorney Julian McPhillips, the students alleged
they were shorted their deserved monies by ASU.
McPhillips contends ASU hammered the students with exorbitant billing and they were not being treated like other students.
The school allegedly inflated the costs
of staples like books, room and board, and repurposed the funds to pay
for the school’s bond issues.
While most college students are
permitted to bargain shop for textbooks wherever they wish or dine at
different establishments beyond the school cafeterias, the Nigerian
nationals at ASU, according to the federal complaint, were boxed in.
According to McPhillips, “They were not
allowed by ASU to spend this money, but instead the money was credited
towards certain expenses the students incurred, or towards other
expenses ASU incurred that were unrelated to the students.”
Iwezu, who is one of the students, told
Daily Beast: “The school compelled us to buy books from the book store
and eat only at the cafeteria,” adding: “I tried to make them
understand, ‘Hey, we don’t want to live in the dorms anymore, and we
don’t want to eat our entire meals at the dorms.”
He said greaed trumped reason. “They
want our money,” he said, adding that the surcharge to live on campus
was raised specifically for him and his Nigerian counterparts. “They
make us pay $3,000 (a semester) to live in the dorms, and that is more
than a mortgage on homes in this area. “Enough is enough.”
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