The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the University of Calabar (UNICAL) to allow 214 students removed from its Faculty of Law to continue attending lectures and accessing academic facilities pending the determination of their lawsuit.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik issued the interlocutory injunction on Monday after hearing arguments from lawyers representing the affected students and the university.
The court directed UNICAL to grant the students unrestricted access to lectures, their student portals and other academic facilities while the substantive suit is being determined.
The judge also ordered the parties to maintain the status quo and adjourned the case until November 25 for hearing.
The students’ lawyer, Bernard Okpi, argued that UNICAL and other defendants had been served with the court documents on August 24 and had exceeded the statutory 30-day period for responding to the suit.
However, the university’s lawyer, Jonas Abuo, told the court that the defendants were unable to file their response because the university’s Vice-Chancellor and Registrar were outside the country. He requested an adjournment to enable them to respond to the case.
The students opposed the request and urged the court to either proceed with the hearing or grant the adjournment with a N2 million cost against the defendants.
The dispute followed UNICAL’s decision in August to remove 214 of its 435 second-year LL.B students from the Faculty of Law and return them to the departments where they were initially admitted.
The university said only 221 of the 435 students had been officially admitted to study Law, while the remaining 214 were admitted into the faculty from other departments.
According to the university, the affected students would also be unable to gain admission to the Nigerian Law School if they continued studying Law under their existing admission status.
The affected students, however, maintained that UNICAL had admitted them into the Law programme, collected their fees, registered them for Law courses, allowed them to sit examinations and permitted them to progress through the programme.
They further claimed that the university later directed them to undergo Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board regularisation, which they completed after paying the required fees.
The students subsequently instituted a suit against UNICAL, Vice-Chancellor Offiong Offiong, the Registrar and President Bola Tinubu, demanding N5 billion in damages and seeking an order protecting their continued studies in the Law programme.
With Monday’s ruling, the 214 students can continue their academic activities at the Faculty of Law pending the court’s final determination of the case.
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