Nigerian Students Sue Alabama University for Treating Them ‘Like Animals’

By Joseph Ushigiale with agency report

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.”