A lawyer, F.K. Nnadi has served pre-action notices on the University of Lagos, UNILAG, and Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, citing alleged irregularities in the conduct and release of their 2025 Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME) results.
The notices, signed by the firm’s principal counsel, Kene Nnadi, accused the two institutions of awarding unjustifiably low scores to some candidates while withholding the results of others without providing any explanation, a situation the firm argued could unfairly endanger the admission prospects of affected students.
Beyond the universities, the law firm also petitioned the National Universities Commission, NUC, and the House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Education, urging both bodies to intervene and ensure transparency in the process.
The petitions were amplified online by Alex Onyia, CEO of Educare, an education technology company, who has repeatedly raised concerns about the credibility of Post-UTME screening exercises.
In its demands, the law firm gave OAU three months and UNILAG 30 days to comply. It requested that both universities provide access to Post-UTME scripts and marking schemes, release all withheld results, and allow students accused of malpractice to defend themselves before any disciplinary measures are enforced.
The notices warned that failure to comply would result in legal action at the Federal High Court to enforce candidates’ rights, including seeking declaratory reliefs, injunctions, and damages.
DAILY POST reports that UNILAG denied any technical fault in its Post-UTME exercise. Its spokesperson, Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, maintained that cases flagged for malpractice stemmed from “clear breaches of examination guidelines,” which were corroborated by various monitoring systems, including video surveillance.
However, Onyia argued that both institutions relied on the same Post-UTME software, which he claimed contained a bug that wrongly flagged candidates for malpractice and mismatched scores for others.
According to him, 752 complaints had been collated from students, and he suggested an independent audit for any institution willing to submit its processes for review.
The dispute emerges against the backdrop of a turbulent year for national examinations in Nigeria.
Earlier in May, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, acknowledged a glitch in its UTME platform that affected over 370,000 candidates, leading to a rescheduled exam.
Similarly, the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, temporarily suspended its online result checker due to technical issues before revising performance rates from 38% to 62%.
In its petitions, F.K. Nnadi & Co. urged regulators and lawmakers to step in, insisting on fairness and accountability.
“Direct both universities to release the withheld results of students not accused of any wrongdoing and grant access to scripts and marking schemes in the interest of transparency,” the firm demanded.
