The Federal Republic of Nigeria filed a motion in federal court Monday to join approximately 40 Nigerian students in a lawsuit against Alabama State University.

The motion is the latest movement in a lawsuit filed in Aug. 2016 that initially listed the Nigerian government as a defendant, a decision Julian McPhillips, attorney for the students, said was a formality at the time.

The lawsuit claims that throughout the students’ expected four-year tenure, ASU erroneously charged the students’ accounts for services they were not using and did not allow the students access to excess funds meant to allow the students to pay rent and buy books and groceries.

In some cases, students claim they were charged for semesters they did not attend classes and for dorms they did not live in.

McPhillips and Birmingham-based attorney Anthony Ifediba, a co-counsel for the plaintiffs, currently estimate ASU withheld $800,000 from the students.

“I hope it will sober Alabama State University up, and its new president, to realize that what these students are talking about is very serious and it’s having an adverse effect on them legally and I’d imagine public relations-wise,” McPhillips said of the latest motion at a press conference held outside of the federal courthouse in Montgomery Monday. “ASU seeks to attract students from all over the world, certainly from Africa but maybe from other parts of the world. If it shows Nigerian students are not being treated right, others are going to raise their eyebrows and say, ‘Maybe we should go to Tuskegee or Auburn.'”

In 2013, the Nigerian government sponsored 41 Nigerian students to study at ASU, a historically black university.

Student Kehinde Batife previously told the Montgomery Advertiser the students received $32,000 each, and Ifediba said Nigeria paid ASU about $5 million total to cover tuition and student expenses.

However, the students claim that they were denied access to the funds leftover after tuition was paid.

Success Jumbo describes difficulties he encountered while at ASU. Wochit

“When these students came to ASU, they didn’t know anybody but they were provided for,” Ifediba said. “Through ASU, there were monies that were supposed to have been paid to the students to maintain their daily living, because they didn’t know anybody and don’t know who to turn to in terms of hardship. But ASU has kept this money.”

Success Jumbo, another Nigerian student, said former ASU provost Leon Wilson was “surprisingly” the person responsible for approving Nigerian students the use of their funds.

“I didn’t anticipate any of this to happen,” Jumbo said. “This is supposed to be money made available to us. It’s not like were asking for money from his personal pocket. It’s money made available to us to get these things when we need them.”

Jumbo got married in May 2014 and moved off campus, but he said ASU continued to charge his account for on-campus housing and didn’t release funds for him to pay rent.

“I have a family and can’t live on campus with my family. So I went to the provost on several occasions asking them, ‘Look let me have the funds. This is not your money. This is my money,'” Jumbo said. “We offered an authorization letter twice and yet he still refused to release the funds.”

ASU confirmed this month that Wilson resigned from his position as provost, but ASU public relations director Ken Mullinax said Wilson has not resigned from the university. Mullinax twice did not respond to requests asking what position Wilson currently occupies, saying only that the university stands by its previous statement.

It’s unknown if the resignation of Wilson as provost is related to the lawsuit.

Jumbo and several other Nigerian students graduated in three years, but Jumbo said he still received charges for the summer after he graduated. Ifediba said some other three-year graduates were charged for a fourth year.

Some of the 41 students transferred from ASU, but Ifediba said those “two or three” students had difficulties transferring their funds from ASU to another university.

In the complaint, ASU attorney Kenneth Thomas is quoted as saying any refunds of credit would be issued to the Nigerian government, because “there is no financial arrangement between the University and the individual Nigerian students.”

In a statement issued by the ASU public relations office Monday, Thomas again said that the students had no standing in the agreement. Thomas also referenced the $200,000 ASU put aside for the Nigerian government after the lawsuit was filed.

“The agreement regarding the education of the Nigerian students dates back to 2013 and has always been between the government of Nigeria and Alabama State University, not the individual students. Since the initiation of the agreement, ASU has adhered to and complied with every instruction and direction given to the University by the Nigerian government regarding that agreement,” Thomas said. “ASU has advised the Nigerian government through several letters that as a result of the University’s accounting over the last four years, the government is entitled to a $202,009.50 credit, which was deposited last year into a trust account at the federal courthouse in Montgomery, Ala. The University has yet to receive a response from the Nigerian government regarding the credit.”

McPhillips said that the approximately $200,000 put into an account by ASU “is not adequate.”

McPhillips no damages were ever sought from Nigeria when the government was a defendant and that this motion aligns the the parties along lines of similar interests in seeking funds from ASU.

All claims in the lawsuit took place prior to ASU’s hiring of Quinton Ross as president last fall.

McPhillips called Ross an “honorable person” and said he hopes that Ross will help resolve the dispute.

Ifediba expressed similar hope that Ross could offer a solution to the problem. Meanwhile, he said the Nigerian government has become more cautious with its foreign study scholarship program.

“The Nigerian government has the impression they’d go travel to the U.S., get a western education and get properly trained, but when you run into issues like this, it kind of breaches a lot of trust,” Ifediba said. “Right now the program has decided not to send a lot of the students outside the country and instead send them to universities inside Nigeria.”

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