Court Restores Academic Access for 214 UNICAL Law Students Pending Suit
The Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the University of Calabar to restore academic access to 214 students removed from its Faculty of Law while their legal challenge against the university remains before the court.
Justice Joyce Abdulmalik granted an interlocutory injunction directing the university to allow the affected students access to lectures, their academic portals and other academic facilities pending determination of the substantive suit.
The order gives the students temporary academic protection.
It does not finally decide whether their removal from the Law programme was lawful or whether they are entitled to remain in the faculty permanently.
Court tells parties to maintain status quo
The order followed arguments from lawyers representing the students and the university.
Jonas Abuo, counsel for UNICAL and the other defendants, told the court that the defendants had been served with the filings but had not yet filed their response because the university’s vice-chancellor and registrar were outside the country.
The students’ lawyer, Bernard Okpi, opposed the request for further delay and urged the court to hear their application for interim protection.
After hearing both sides, Justice Abdulmalik granted the injunction and directed the parties to maintain the status quo.
The case was adjourned until November 25 for hearing.
How 214 students ended up in court
The dispute began after UNICAL directed 214 students to leave the Faculty of Law and return to the departments into which they were originally admitted.
The university said only 221 of 435 second-year LL.B students had been officially admitted into Law, while the remaining 214 had transferred from other programmes.
UNICAL also said the affected students would not qualify for admission to the Nigerian Law School if they remained in the Law programme under their existing admission status.
The students dispute that position.
They argue that the university admitted them into the Law programme, collected their fees, registered them for courses, allowed them to sit examinations and subsequently directed them to regularise their admissions through JAMB.
They filed the suit in August, seeking N5 billion in damages and asking the court to protect their continued studies in Law.
The N5 billion is a claim before the court, not compensation awarded to the students.
Academic access restored, dispute unresolved
For the students, the immediate consequence of the order is practical: they can return to lectures and regain access to academic systems while the case continues.
But the deeper dispute remains unresolved.
The court has not determined whether the university acted unlawfully when it removed the students from the Faculty of Law.
It has also not determined whether their admissions into Law were valid, whether any administrative irregularity occurred, or who ultimately bears responsibility for the situation.
Those questions remain subject to the substantive proceedings and the evidence placed before the court.
The broader institutional question raised by the dispute is how 214 students progressed through the Law programme far enough to pay fees, register courses and sit examinations before their admission status became contested.
That is the broader institutional question raised by the dispute, even as the court remains focused on the legal claims before it.
Until the substantive case is determined, the strongest verified position remains limited but significant: the students have regained interim academic access, while the legality of their status in the Law programme remains undecided.