The management of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has reacted to allegations of extortion against the institution based on a ₦20,000 fee charged for remarking students' examination scripts.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how students accused the school of extortion after the institution announced a N20,000 fee per course to remark examination scripts.

Based on the announcement on its website, the school plans to set up a three-member committee to re-mark the scripts after receiving the payment. Efforts by PREMIUM TIMES to seek clarification on what the payment was for, from the university, were unsuccessful as all telephone numbers provided on the school's portal did not go through and emails sent to the university were also not replied for a week.

In a statement sent to this newspaper on Wednesday, the Director of Media and Publicity of the institution, Ibrahim Sheme, stated the reason for the charges.

"I would like to clarify that NOUN does not charge any unnecessary fees or fancies extorting money from students."

"What obtains in the case raised by you is that when results of examinations are approved and released by the university, any student who feels that he or she ought to have scored higher grades may decide to apply to the university for the remarking of such courses."

"The procedure is that such papers will be forwarded to other experts in another university, who are paid together with courier service from the fee the affected student pays for the remarking that he or she has asked for."

He also noted that it is an opportunity for fair hearing afforded the affected student rather than any attempt at extortion.

"NOUN does not withhold the results of students in order to ask them to pay for marking their scripts. Any delay in releasing results may have been caused by a minor hitch in procedure, but the said fee affects only the student who files an appeal for remarking with the hope that he or she will score a higher grade," Mr Sheme wrote.