Council Of Legal Education Sanctions Nine Universities Over Admission Racketeering

By Ayodele Oni

Nine universities in the country have been sanctioned by the Council of Legal Education (CLE), for non compliance with laid down regulations.

The universities, out of which six are privately owned, were suspended for admission of students into their faculties of law without approval of the council.

This is one of the decisions of CLE during its second quarterly meeting of 2024, chaired by Chief Emeka Ngige, SAN.

The Universities in question were found to have admitted and graduated law students without obtaining the necessary accreditation from the CLE.

In addition to the suspension of admissions, Lead City University in Ibadan, Oyo State, has been placed under a five-year moratorium.

The CLE cited inadequate infrastructure and repeated violations of the University’s admission quota as the reasons for this decision.

The Council has pledged to accommodate the over 1,000 students unlawfully admitted by Lead City University within the available space.

The CLE also addressed a recent judgment against it regarding a property in Lagos that once housed the first Nigerian Law School students. An ad-hoc committee has been set up to ensure compliance with the judgment and explore options for securing the historic building.

Furthermore, the council granted provisional accreditation status to two private universities: El-Amin University and Newgate University, both located in Minna, Niger State. These institutions have been given an admission quota of 50 students each.

The CLE promised to revisit the Faculty of Law at Veritas University in Abuja and Kola Daisi University in Ibadan at a later date to assess their compliance with the accreditation team’s findings.

The University of Abuja, however, has  its admission quota increased from 100 to 160 students due to improvements in infrastructure and the recruitment of additional academic staff.

Lastly, the Council approved the establishment of a legal unit within the office of the Director-General of the Nigerian Law School to monitor court cases involving the CLE and keep the council informed of any developments.