Things are no longer at ease with the National Association of Niger State Students, the umbrella body comprising millions of Niger State students.
The association has been torn apart by money allegedly given to the students body by the Niger State Government and the endorsement of the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state, Alhaji Umar Nasko.
Shehu Mohammed Chata, the National President; Abubakar S. Abdullahi, the National Secretary-General; and Yusuf Mohammed, the National Financial Secretary have been suspended by the students body for receiving financial donations from Aliyu without declaring so and the endorsement of candidates for the election.
Though a statement on Thursday by the association did not mention the names of the candidates allegedly supported by Chata, Abdullahi and Mohammed, The Eagle Online recalls that some members of NANISS had openly declared support for the candidature of Nasko.
A statement on Thursday said the three union leaders stand suspended for six weeks in the first instance.
The statement said the suspension can only be lifted after the trio must have appeared before a disciplinary committee.
The students, who met in Thursday, in a communique signed by the Senate President of Students’ Representative Assembly, Saidu Mohammed Kandi, announced the suspension of the students union leaders.
Chata and his co-travellers were said to have collected N25 million monthly from Aliyu without declaring it.
The communique added: “The congress which was held at Assembly Hall, College of Education, Minna, reiterated their promise not to welcome any illogical partisan fellow who fly with conceit and ego. They assured the students to sanitize the association from corruption and the disdains of pseudo-democratic flaws.”
The communique the association was an instrument of democracy and that harms can be caused if left for usage by those who are biased.
It added: “The Students’ Representative Assembly of the National Association of Niger state Students has thereby appointed the Vice President, Comrade Hauwa Ibrahim Ahmad, as the Acting President of the association and the Assistant Secretary General, Comrade Abubakar Mohammed Nma, as the Secretary General of the indigenous association.”
The appointment took immediate effect.