HONOURABLE
Justice Chidi N. Uwa of the Federal Appeal Court sitting in Ibadan on Wednesday
ruled that the Law programme of Lead City University was never accredited,
thereby setting aside the judgment of the of the State High Court declared on
July 26, 2011, resolving the judgment in favour of the Nigerian University
Commission (NUC) which appealed.
Delivering
the judgment in almost three hour sitting in case CA/1/255/2011, between the
NUC and Rev. Segun Ademola Alli and others, Justice Uwa noted that there is a
difference in operating as private university and establishing of a law faculty
and accreditation. She maintained that from evidences tagged as exhibits were examined before arriving at the
conclusion that the law programme of the university was never accredited,
saying there could have been a situation where the programme was de-accredited.
She
said Lead City University law programme was regarded invalid by the NUC because
of the absence of Council of Legal Education (CLE) which must be involved in
the process as stated by the Act of the commission.
In
the judgment, Justice Uwas revealed that some of the evidences before her set
the records straight that the plaintiff who was said to have graduated in 2009
could not have when the programme was established at the university in year
2008. According to her, that means, officially it took the plaintiff, one year
to complete a law programme in the institution.
She
also clarified that the law programme in the university was established in a
letter dated April 15, 2008, the plaintiff was given admission to study law
through a letter dated May 22, 2005, while the institution got licence to
operate as a private university through a letter dated June 9, 2005.
Justice
Uwa said what this implies was that the plaintiff even got admitted before the
Lead City University was awarded licence in 2005, adding that the plaintiff
could not also have been studying the same programme which was established in
the institution three years after it was officially established.
In
her judgment, Uwa noted that the NUC had stated its guidelines for
accreditation of law programmes in Nigeria through a newspaper advertorial
which was not only meant for Lead City University only but all intending
institutions willing to run law programmes. She thereby based her decision on a
15 set guidelines set aside by the law school, with emphasis on numbers 13,14
and 15 on the set out guidelines.
She
also ruled that the plaintiff has no locus standi to challenge the action of
the appellant (NUC) over the accreditation of law programme of the University,
adding that the action was meted out to the university and not the plaintiff
and considered his action as that of ‘busy body.’
Other
areas she delved into is that the university acted illegally having commenced
admitting students even before it got its licence to operate as a private
university.
The
judgment according to Uwa was supported by the Presiding justice of Ibadan division
of the Court of Appeal, Honourable Justice M.B. Dongban-Mensem and Honourable
Justice A. Jauro.
She
however ordered that each party bear its cost of running the case.
