Appoints New Dean
The suspension of the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Prof. Michael Takim Otu, has exposed deep concerns over how the 2025 Nigerian Law School mobilization exercise was handled within the Faculty.
On 22 January 2026, the University Senate, at its 253rd meeting, suspended Prof. Otu following the submission of a fact-finding committee report that examined multiple petitions arising from the mobilization process.
At the core of the crisis was the exclusion of final-year law students with exceptionally high academic records. Documents reviewed indicate that students with CGPAs of 4.34, 4.32, and 4.12 were omitted from the mobilization list, despite satisfying the Faculty’s long-standing merit-based criteria.
When confronted, the Acting Dean reportedly failed to provide a clear or consistent explanation for their exclusion. The affected students remained in limbo for months, prompting petitions to the Public Complaints Commission and the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Offiong E. Offiong. These petitions alleged arbitrary decision-making and a departure from established procedures.
The matter reached Senate in December 2025, resulting in the constitution of a fact-finding committee. By the time the committee submitted its report in January 2026, further allegations had emerged.
Additional petitions came from students who had already been mobilized for law school. These students alleged that after downloading, completing, and submitting their law school forms through the Faculty, the Acting Dean later refused to forward the forms and attempted to replace them through a supplementary list. The justification offered was that their results were not ready.
The committee reportedly found this explanation to be inaccurate. Evidence placed before Senate showed that the affected students’ results had long been approved before the mobilization exercise, effectively undermining the basis for the supplementary list.
The committee’s findings also raised concerns about the absence of transparency in the mobilization process. It was alleged that the Acting Dean could not satisfactorily explain the criteria used in compiling the mobilization list and that the exercise was not routed through the Faculty Law School Committee, a body established to ensure oversight and due process.
Investigations further revealed that the University of Calabar has an approved quota of 170 students and that the Faculty’s established practice has been to present students strictly in order of academic merit, beginning from the highest CGPAs. This practice was designed to reward excellence and eliminate discretion that could invite abuse.
It also emerged that prior to Senate’s intervention, the Vice Chancellor personally visited the Nigerian Law School to advocate for students who had been unfairly excluded, underscoring the gravity of the situation and the institutional embarrassment it had caused.
Following deliberations on the committee’s report, Senate suspended Prof. Otu with immediate effect and referred him to the University Disciplinary Committee for further investigation.
In the interim, Prof. Michael Ibanga was appointed Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law, with a clear mandate to restore order, enforce due process, and rebuild confidence in the Faculty’s administrative systems.
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