Out of about 250 students at the state schools of nursing in Agbor, Eku and Warri, Delta State, 219 are poised to miss council examinations after their principals failed to produce their index and examination numbers.

The students, who had paid about N98,000 examination fee and N15,000 test fee each, told FIJ on Tuesday that they did not have index and examination numbers yet.

“We could not write our council exams today and this is the result of a problem that started in 2019,” a nursing student who asked not to be named said on Tuesday.

“In our first year as nursing students, we paid for indexing twice. We paid for the same indexing three other times, making it five payments for the same process. The officials claimed that the people who previously did the indexing did not do the authentic one.

“Around July this year, our school (School of Nursing, Agbor) told us to pay N98,000 for the council examination. We were given a short notice, and we also paid N15,000 for a computer-based test. That CBT test never happened.”

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The students had approximately one week to raise money for their council examination fee.

Another student at the school of nursing in Agbor confirmed what the first student told FIJ.

“We were in temporary accommodation in Asaba for the examination that would have taken place today. It was almost 12 o’clock in the night when the Director of Nursing Services and our principals came to address us with armed men. They told us that only 31 students from the three nursing schools had index and examination numbers,” the student said.

“We had paid for this council examination in July, we paid N98,000 for the exam. They did not tell us that we did not have our index number until a night before the exam. We had also paid N15,000 for a CBT test but we never got to do that test.”

Each student paid a total N113,000 for the CBT test and council examination. FIJ found that 219 nursing students, who had paid N24,747,000 in total, were prevented from writing the council examination because they had no index and examination number.

Gloria Ogobumn, the Director of Nursing Services, Delta State, told the students that most of them could not get their index and examination numbers due to a technical problem from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) headquarters.

According to another student who spoke with FIJ, Ogobumn was lying about the technical glitch from the NMCN headquarters.

“After they told us the problem was from Abuja, we called the headquarters. They told us that the NMCN had no issues with the schools in Delta State,” the student said.

“We had found out that the portal was not yet open when they asked us to pay N98,000 for the council examination. Delta State University’s nursing students did not have any issues with their own registration. I also understand that they did not pay as much as the N98,000 we paid.”

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The student also told FIJ that over 200 students from Agbor, Eku and Warri marched to the examination centre to stage a protest on Tuesday.

“DELSU nursing students were at the exam centre, ready to write the exam. We had to protest and insist that no one would be allowed to write the exams if the rest of us couldn’t. There were about 90 students from each of Agbor, Eku and Warri,” said the student.

Both students said that Mordi Ononye, Delta State Commissioner for Health, went to the examination centre to meet the protesting students.

No one wrote the nursing council examination on Tuesday. FIJ learnt that Ononye asked every nursing student to return to their campus.

“I don’t know what will happen to our money and academic year now,” a student said.

FIJ sent a mail to the NMCN’s email addresses but got an automated response. They had not sent a reply to FIJ at press time.