Two hundred and fourteen students of the University of Calabar, Cross River State, have sued the institution, its Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and President Bola Tinubu over their removal from the Faculty of Law.
The students are demanding N5 billion in damages, arguing that the university’s decision to transfer them back to the faculties and departments where they were originally admitted was unlawful.
The suit was filed on August 12 at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The controversy began after the university directed 214 second-year Law students to return to their former departments.
According to the university, only 221 of the 435 students in the second-year Bachelor of Laws programme were officially admitted into the Faculty of Law, while the remaining 214 had entered the faculty from other departments.
The university subsequently said the affected students would not be eligible for admission into the Nigerian Law School if they remained in the programme under their current admission status.
Students challenge university’s decision
The affected students, however, argued that their admission letters, payment of fees, course registration, examinations and JAMB regularisation created “valid, binding, and subsisting legal contracts” between them and the university.
In an affidavit filed in support of the suit, one of the students, Ogana Lawrence Lukpata, said the university admitted him and the other 213 claimants into the Faculty of Law between the 2023/2024 and 2024/2025 academic sessions.
He said they accepted their admission offers, paid acceptance and school fees, completed screening, registered for Law courses, attended lectures and sat for examinations.
According to him, the students progressed from 100 Level to 200 Level, with some reaching 300 Level.
The students also claimed that the university later directed them to undergo JAMB regularisation, which they completed after paying the required fees.
However, they alleged that problems emerged after the current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Offiong Offiong, assumed office in December 2025.
They claimed that Offiong refused to complete regularisation documents initiated under his predecessor, Professor Florence Obi, because the forms did not bear his name.
The students said they were subsequently required to repeat the JAMB regularisation process and pay the associated fees.
Students demand N5bn damages
The students argued that the university should not invalidate admissions and other official processes carried out under the previous administration.
They also questioned why students were being penalised for what they described as administrative lapses by university officials.
“Instead of holding its staff accountable for administrative lapses, the university management singled out innocent students who acted in good faith and spent years studying law courses.”
The students are asking the court to determine whether the Vice-Chancellor can “arbitrarily and unilaterally” invalidate admissions, official acts and JAMB regularisation approvals made under his predecessor.
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They are also challenging the university’s decision to lock their academic portals, arguing that they were not given prior notice, queried or allowed to defend their status before the action was taken.
The students said none of them had been found guilty of examination malpractice, academic dishonesty, breach of university regulations or gross misconduct.
Students seek court protection
Apart from the N5 billion damages claim, the students are seeking a permanent injunction preventing the university, Vice-Chancellor and Registrar from transferring, ejecting, demoting or restricting their access to academic platforms.
They also want the court to order the restoration of their access to academic result portals, course registration portals and learning platforms.
In an interim application filed alongside the substantive suit, the students asked the court to temporarily stop the university from enforcing the August 5 directive pending the determination of the case.
They further urged the court to declare that their removal from the Faculty of Law and the locking of their academic portals violated their right to fair hearing.
President Tinubu was also joined in the suit, with the students asking the court to determine whether he has a statutory responsibility, as the appointing authority for the Vice-Chancellor, to intervene in the dispute.
The matter is now before the Federal High Court in Abuja, where the students are seeking judicial intervention to retain their status as Law students at the University of Calabar.
