UNILAG rescues students stranded in China after social media outcry

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The University of Lagos has confirmed that a group of its students who became stranded in China while returning from a one-year academic exchange programme are on their way back to Nigeria after the institution intervened following a viral appeal on X.

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The incident came to public attention after an X user, @Osunwede, popularly known as Turah BMG, raised an alarm on Monday, calling for urgent intervention.

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“Please treat as urgent! Who has the contact of Unilag VC, some of their students are currently stranded in a foreign country!!! Please!!!,” she said.

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Providing further details shortly afterwards, she wrote, “She has been contacted. They were to return to Nigeria after a 1 year study in China, a lecturer was in charge (payment was made as at last year).

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“The agent the lecturer used booked a 27hr layover in Qatar. Qatar doesn’t allow more than 24hr layover except you have a visa.”

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As concerns mounted online, another X user, @Senatoradeyemi2, who identifies as Senatorgraphy, claimed the affected students had travelled to China under a UNILAG exchange programme but encountered problems while attempting to return home.

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“For those that are curious, they are students of Unilag, they went to China for an exchange program. They were meant to have returned to their home country in Nigeria on Monday but because of a lecturer’s negligence and agent which obviously comes to monetary.”

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In another post, he alleged that the students were stranded in Shanghai after their travel plans collapsed.

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“They are stranded in China. An average Nigerian is wicked, the lecturer instead didn’t manage the funds well and had to put them into the struggle trying to book cheap flights in the case it didn’t work out and now the students are meant to suffer for his incompetence,” healleged.

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He further claimed the students had been forced to make an additional journey because of the travel arrangements.

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“They are currently in Shanghai and have to travel another 15 hours down to Beijing to be able to book a flight down to their home country. This all happened because the VC got involved; it was supposed to be a clean transaction. The school should fish out the lecturer,” he said.

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According to him, the Vice-Chancellor later stepped in to provide immediate support for the students.

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“The VC has sent them money for food. Thank you for your timely intervention Ma. This is great.

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“This is cool if VC would do this, the lecturer should face disciplinary actions. It doesn’t even make sense, however I’m glad the VC has come up to make amends. Let’s see how it goes they are around 10am now when the day breaks here, hopefully everything is sorted,” the X user said.

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Responding via its official X account, @UnilagNigeria, the university confirmed that the issue had been resolved and the students were already travelling home.

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“Thank you for reaching out @Osunwede. The situation has been swiftly resolved. The students have been well taken care of, and are now on their way back home. As we await their safe return, on behalf of the @UnilagVC, we appreciate everyone who brought this to our attention.”

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Reacting to the university’s response on X on Tuesday, the original poster, Turah BMG thanked the institution and the Vice-Chancellor for acting quickly but called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

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“Thank you so much & to the VC for swift response. However, a proper investigation needs to be carried out so such won’t repeat itself again. The lecturer in charge is subtly threatening to fail the students for daring to raise alarm. He has been said to be notorious for this.”

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The university has yet to publicly respond to the allegation against the lecturer or announce whether an internal investigation has commenced.

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