{"id":170145,"date":"2025-07-18T12:25:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T11:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate"},"modified":"2025-07-18T13:39:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T12:39:11","slug":"lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers Urge Court to Replace UNIBEN VC with Top Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Lawyers, under the aegis of Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, have asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the Minister of Education, Maruf Alausa, to remove the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, Prof. Edoba Omoregie, SAN.<\/p>\n<p>Omoregie, of the Faculty of Law, in December 2014 assumed office as the 11th substantive Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin.<\/p>\n<p>However, ALDRAP, in a suit filed by its lawyer, Timothy Tersugh Ahua, is demanding the nullification of Omoregie\u2019s appointment over alleged infractions.<\/p>\n<p>In the suit numbered FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1417\/2025, which has the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Minister of Education and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, as respondents, ALDRAP asked the Abuja Federal High Court to grant an Order of Mandamus compelling the education minister to sack Omoregie and \u201cinstall the highest scored candidate or second or third \u2013 as the case may be \u2013 in the selection examination for the Office of Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The court was equally asked to make a declaration that the selection and appointment of the current UNIBEN VC is null, void and of no legal effect having been made in violation of extant laws, including the University of Benin Regulations and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission Act, 2000.<\/p>\n<p>The legislative lawyers association also asked the court to make a declaration that the appointment of the VC is in breach of the principles of merit, transparency and fairness, particularly where the selected candidate did not obtain the highest score in the selection examination.<\/p>\n<p>In the same vein, the court was asked to make a declaration that the selected VC is ineligible for the position by reason of having overstayed his statutory leave of absence from UNIBEN while serving at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, NILDS, from 2014 to 2024, contrary to the university\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n<p>ALDRAP also asked the court to order ICPC to investigate and prosecute Omoregie for alleged infractions of Section 19 of the ICPC Act, 2000, as well as any order the court may deem fit.<\/p>\n<p>Stating the grounds for the application, dated July 16, 2025, ALDRAP noted that the selection process for the VC of UNIBEN is required by law and university regulations to be based on merit and transparency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe said appointee had overstayed his leave of absence at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), rendering him ineligible for consideration under the University of Benin\u2019s regulations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Vice-Chancellor is in violation of Section 19 of the ICPC Act, 2000 by collecting double salaries and allowances from NILDS and the University of Benin simultaneously, between 2014 and 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe failure of the Minister of Education to nullify the irregular appointment and conduct a fresh examination constitutes a continuing breach of duty,\u201d ALDRAP added.<\/p>\n<p>The lawyers\u2019 association noted that it has the requisite legal standing to file the suit as a public interest body committed to promoting good governance, legislative compliance, and transparency in public institutions.<\/p>\n<p>In an affidavit in support of the motion, deposed by Jesse Williams, the Administrative Secretary, ALDRAP averred that a fraudulent method was used in selecting the VC of UNIBEN.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe process of electing the Vice Chancellor was supposed to be by examination. The highest scorer was to be elected. The examination for the Vice Chancellorship was conducted but in the process of time the lowest scorer was the elected chancellor,\u201d Williams alleged.<\/p>\n<p>The affidavit added, \u201cWe wrote to the Minister of Education to avail us with the documents, with respect to the selection exercise, for the chancellorship, the final scores by candidates who participated in the chancellorship contest. But our request was not granted. Our letter to the Honourable Minister of Education dated 20th May, 2025 is hereby pleaded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also followed up our letter to the Minister of Education with another letter to avail us with the information with respect to the examination for election of a Vice Chancellor in the University of Benin but to no avail. In our letter to the Honourable Minister we demanded also for the removal of Prof. Edoba B. Omereige, SAN, as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin because he scored the 23rd position out the 25 candidates that participated in the Vice Chancellorship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe demanded in a letter to the Chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, to prosecute Prof. Edoba B. Omereige, SAN, for corruption during his tenure at the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS). Our letter to the Chairman ICPC is hereby attached and marked as \u201cExhibit B\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe further wrote another letter to the Honourable Chairman House of Representative Committee on University Education but up till now there is no response. The said letter is hereby attached and marked as Exhibit C.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Williams noted that the Minister of Education, ICPC chairman as well as the Chairman on the House of Representatives Committee on University Education refused to take the appropriate legal action on the alleged irregularities in the appointment of the UNIBEN VC.<\/p>\n<p>He described the development as injustice, as, according to him, some members of the association and their associates got higher scores in the selection examination but were not selected.<\/p>\n<p>The affidavit stressed that \u201cit is only the court that can now intervene to correct the anomalies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No date has been fixed to hear the suit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Lawyers, under the aegis of Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, have asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the Minister of Education, Maruf Alausa, to remove the Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, UNIBEN, Prof. Edoba Omoregie, SAN. Omoregie, of the Faculty of Law, in December [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":170144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[69,254,4552],"class_list":["post-170145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-court","tag-nigeria","tag-uniben"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lawyers Urge Court to Replace UNIBEN VC with Top Candidate - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lawyers, under the aegis of Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, have asked a Federal ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lawyers Urge Court to Replace UNIBEN VC with Top Candidate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lawyers, under the aegis of Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners, ALDRAP, have asked a Federal ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-18T11:25:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-18T12:39:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1752829867.243427.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lawyers Urge Court to Replace UNIBEN VC with Top Candidate\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-18T11:25:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-18T12:39:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate\"},\"wordCount\":915,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/sm_1752829867.243427.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"court\",\"Nigeria\",\"Uniben\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/lawyers-urge-court-to-replace-uniben-vc-with-top-candidate\",\"name\":\"Lawyers Urge Court to Replace UNIBEN VC with Top Candidate - 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