News

Law Firm Threatens To Sue UNILAG, OAU Over Post-UTME Glitches

BySodiq Yusuf

PublishedSeptember 14, 2025

A Nigerian law firm, F.K. Nnadi & Co., has threatened legal action against the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, over alleged irregularities in their 2025 Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) results.

In pre-action notices signed by Kene Nnadi, the firm accused the universities of awarding unjustifiably low scores and withholding some candidates’ results without explanation, thereby putting their admission chances at risk.

The firm also petitioned the House of Representatives and the National Universities Commission (NUC), calling for intervention. The petitions and notices were shared by Alex Onyia, CEO of Educare, who has consistently raised concerns about infractions in the Post-UTME process.

In its demands, the law firm asked for access to answer scripts, the marking schemes used, and the release of withheld results. It further requested that students accused of malpractice be granted a fair hearing before any sanctions. Failure to comply, it warned, would lead to legal action at a Federal High Court, seeking declaratory reliefs, injunctions, and damages.

While OAU was given three months to respond, UNILAG was given 30 days.

Reacting, UNILAG denied any technical glitches, with its spokesperson, Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, insisting that flagged cases were due to “clear violations of established examination guidelines,” detected through multiple monitoring systems, including video surveillance.

However, Onyia claimed both universities used the same Post-UTME software, which contained a bug that wrongly flagged candidates for malpractice and mismatched scores. He said 752 reports had been compiled from affected candidates and suggested an independent audit for willing universities.

The development adds to a series of examination controversies in Nigeria this year. In May, JAMB was forced to review its 2025 UTME results after a glitch affected more than 370,000 candidates, leading to a rescheduled exam. Similarly, WAEC temporarily suspended its WASSCE result checker before revising performance rates from 38 per cent to 62 per cent.

In its petition, F.K. Nnadi & Co. urged the NUC and the House Committee on Tertiary Education to “direct both universities to release the withheld results of students who have not been accused of any wrongdoing. Ensure that affected students are granted access to their answer scripts and the marking scheme used, in the interest of transparency.”

Sodiq Yusuf

Sodiq Yusuf is a trained media practitioner and journalist with considerable years of experience in print, broadcast, and digital journalism. His interests cover a wide range of causes in politics, governance, sports, community development, and good governance.