HONOURABLE Justice Hillary Ide Osho Oshomah of the Federal High
Court in Port Harcourt judicial division on Wednesday has fixed
October 4 for judgment after listening to all the parties and their
submissions the second time, in the admission saga between the law
graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and the
Council of Legal Education (CLE). Other parties named in the suit
are the National Universities Commission (NUC), the university,
NOUN, and the Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of
Justice.
The judge, on June 14 readopted the processes earlier filed
before the former judge, Justice B.O. Quadri who failed to deliver
judgment on 27 January as scheduled after a hearing on December 7,
2016. The plaintiffs through their lead counsel, Professor Abiodun
Amuda-Kannike (SAN) are challenging the arbitrary refusal of CLE to
admit them into the Nigerian Law School since 2013 despite the
university’s accreditation of their law programme by the NUC. At
the moment, NOUN has graduated about 1,800 law students with
Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B) since inception but refused
admission for their vocational training in the nation’s law school
for enrolment to the bar.
Speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Professor
Amuda-Kannike stated that he was disturbed on the double standard
being adopted against the students who studied like their
counterparts in the conventional universities and sadly for issues
also prevalent in all the universities in the country. The learned
professor of law added that they successfully presented their
matter before the honourable court and expectedly, justice will
prevail in the matter.
The former judge, Justice Quadri at the preliminary objections
had ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, and dismissed and struck out
all the objections filed by defendants against the suit except NOUN
that filed none. Eventually, the substantive matter which
kicked-off immediately witnessed numerous adjournments till the
aborted judgment. Since then, the Law Graduates Forum had embarked
on clarion calls to virtually all the relevant authorities for
intervention and finally, to the Chief Judge of the Federal High
Court, Hon Justice Ibrahim Auta after four months of the botched
judgment. Suddenly, the matter was however, enlisted for fresh
hearing before the present judge.
Commenting on the development, the chairman of the Law Graduates
Forum (LGF) of the university, Carl Umegboro expressed his
gratitude adding that he is confident that the judgment as fixed by
His lordship will hold as scheduled unlike the previous. The LGF
chairman further lamented that the graduates had been subjected to
severe trauma and unnecessary discrimination despite their
verifiable outstanding performances at competitions with their
counterparts.
“I am impressed with the way the judge gave rapid attention to
the case and believably working to bring the long battle to abrupt
end. I am equally confident we will be vindicated at last as a
supremacy battle between the two governmental bodies cannot
adversely affect innocent students who are third parties”, Umegboro
said.
HONOURABLE Justice Hillary Ide Osho Oshomah of the Federal High
Court in Port Harcourt judicial division on Wednesday has fixed
October 4 for judgment after listening to all the parties and their
submissions the second time, in the admission saga between the law
graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and the
Council of Legal Education (CLE). Other parties named in the suit
are the National Universities Commission (NUC), the university,
NOUN, and the Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of
Justice.
The judge, on June 14 readopted the processes earlier filed
before the former judge, Justice B.O. Quadri who failed to deliver
judgment on 27 January as scheduled after a hearing on December 7,
2016. The plaintiffs through their lead counsel, Professor Abiodun
Amuda-Kannike (SAN) are challenging the arbitrary refusal of CLE to
admit them into the Nigerian Law School since 2013 despite the
university’s accreditation of their law programme by the NUC. At
the moment, NOUN has graduated about 1,800 law students with
Bachelor of Laws degree (LL.B) since inception but refused
admission for their vocational training in the nation’s law school
for enrolment to the bar.
Speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Professor
Amuda-Kannike stated that he was disturbed on the double standard
being adopted against the students who studied like their
counterparts in the conventional universities and sadly for issues
also prevalent in all the universities in the country. The learned
professor of law added that they successfully presented their
matter before the honourable court and expectedly, justice will
prevail in the matter.
The former judge, Justice Quadri at the preliminary objections
had ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, and dismissed and struck out
all the objections filed by defendants against the suit except NOUN
that filed none. Eventually, the substantive matter which
kicked-off immediately witnessed numerous adjournments till the
aborted judgment. Since then, the Law Graduates Forum had embarked
on clarion calls to virtually all the relevant authorities for
intervention and finally, to the Chief Judge of the Federal High
Court, Hon Justice Ibrahim Auta after four months of the botched
judgment. Suddenly, the matter was however, enlisted for fresh
hearing before the present judge.
Commenting on the development, the chairman of the Law Graduates
Forum (LGF) of the university, Carl Umegboro expressed his
gratitude adding that he is confident that the judgment as fixed by
His lordship will hold as scheduled unlike the previous. The LGF
chairman further lamented that the graduates had been subjected to
severe trauma and unnecessary discrimination despite their
verifiable outstanding performances at competitions with their
counterparts.
“I am impressed with the way the judge gave rapid attention to
the case and believably working to bring the long battle to abrupt
end. I am equally confident we will be vindicated at last as a
supremacy battle between the two governmental bodies cannot
adversely affect innocent students who are third parties”, Umegboro
said.
Read more https://nairalaw.com/court-fixes-judgment-again-on-nounlaw-school-suit-on-october-4/