kayode Olusegun Bello a student who was expelled by the Nigerian
Law school management has replied the press statement released by
the institution on Wednesday.
Below reads his rejoinder.
First and foremost, I must say a very big thank you all for
your support so far, because without you maybe not a single soul
would have heard about my illegal expulsion from the Nigerian Law
School. All that had happened clearly showed that we cannot rest on
our oars.
However, it is quite shocking and shameful that the
Nigerian Law School which everyone should see as a beacon of light
and hope for justice had degraded to an arena of lies and
deception.
Anyway, I would chronicle my response which dates to October 13,
2008, when I was released from detention over hike in school fees.
I do not want to bore us with details, but comments of those that
knew about it all would show that I was not part of the said
protest of the October 13, 2008, but I was already detained at the
Sango Police station, and Iyaganku Police station subsequently when
the protest broke out.
Today, the report the Nigerian Law School got from Prof.
Oluyemisi Bamgbose, the then Dean of the Faculty of Law, University
of Ibadan was that I was involved in the disruption of peace and
tranquility on campus.
Please, fellow alumni of the University of Ibadan, who
witnessed the 2008 protest on hike in school fees during Professor
Olufemi Bamiro’s regime as the Vice Chancellor of the University of
Ibadan, was I in the protest then? I allow those University of
Ibadan graduates to be my witnesses.
To answer that, if allowed, I was detained for three days
without knowing the offence I committed. One witness whom I
withhold his name later inboxed me that I did not even distribute
flyers as alleged by the authorities of the University of
Ibadan.
“Moreover, I love to state that at no time did the
authorities of the Nigerian Law School wanted to admit me into the
Nigerian law school. The case of my unlawful denial of admission to
the Nigerian Law School was reported by me to the Public Complaints
Commission that stated that I could only reapply to the Nigerian
Law School in 2016 admission period.”
“One of the statements by the Nigerian Law School that caught my
attention was , ‘’ the Dean’s confidential report showed that he
defied the authorities of the University and continued his
programme without serving out the rustication period.”
“It was when his defiance was discovered that he was forced
to comply.’’ I think the Nigerian Law School knows what I don’t
know of. In the University of Ibadan I know of, immediately the
panel or committee rusticates or expels a student, you have to
obey, and the Vice Chancellor would direct that the security
operatives follow you to pack your belongings from the hostel.
Maybe when we get to Court, the Nigerian Law School would
provide when I was forced to comply with rustication”
‘’After his studentship was reinstated, he was unrepentant as the
report indicated his involvement in a case of gross misconduct
(insurbodination), which made the Board of the Faculty of Law to
recommend him for further disciplinary action, with due
respect to those who want us to be fit and proper, this statement
is not complete and correct being that when I was recommended for
the disciplinary action, what happened?
The Dean, Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose that wrote you did
not tell what happened as she and one Dr. Akintayo John of the
Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan were hell bent on expelling me
from the University of Ibadan.
“The Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan pasted on its
board for information, a summer multi-lateral international
programme in Geneva, Switzerland in June, 2012, I applied and I was
admitted, but I needed fund, then I applied for grant to the then
Vice Chancellor, Professor Adewole Isaac, the incumbent Health
Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but Dr. Akintayo John,
the Acting Dean, stood against it, and said because a year before,
in 2011 a colleague and now a lawyer.”
“Mr. John Bamgbose in-law to the then Dean of the Faculty of
Law, University of Ibadan, and myself benefitted from the
University of Ibadan because we presented a paper on Climate Change
at a conference in the United kingdom, among other reasons he gave
in writing to malign the approving authority.”
“We represented our University and our dear country,
Nigeria.but because that time around the in-law to the then Dean,
Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose was not involved it was a sin for me to
apply for scholarship or grant from the University of Ibadan, so I
opined. Dr. Akintayo later reported me to the then Dean of the
Faculty of Law, Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose, when she came back that I
was rude to him, and that I said he should act reasonably as to his
discretion not to sign my request to the approving
authorities.”
The matter was reported to the then Vice chancellor of the
University of Ibadan who waded into the matter, and asked the
Faculty of Law to drop any allegation against me, having petitioned
him especially via the facebook.
“A copy of my reply to Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose to act
quickly that I would miss the programme if she did not sign my
introduction letter to the Swiss Embassy was sent to the then
Minister of Education and she wrote me that she received
it.”
“It took the intervention of the then Vice chancellor
that I eventually went for the Swiss programme in the Switzerland
representing my University and country, Nigeria, at the Kofi
Annan’s once-attended institution, Geneva, Switzerland, christened
Graduate Institute. I thought all was over at a time
as the then Dean of the Faculty of Law reconstituted another panel
to go against the decision of the vice chancellor then, prof.
Adewole Isaac, but all were in futility.”
“The then Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Oluyemisi
Bamgbose waited for me at the time to be mobilized for the Nigerian
Law School, as I later got to know through the Public Complaints
Commission that an adverse report was made against me by the then
Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose. Meanwhile,
the Nigerian Law School gave me admission in 2012 but was withdrawn
from its website without any reason.”
“It took longer period before Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose
could process my admission and result to the Nigerian Law School,
but at that time I called the attention of the Nigerian Law School
to an anomaly that they admitted two students, one Opadare and
another Chuckwuemeka without complete results from the University
of Ibadan, which the authorities of the University of Ibadan and
the Nigerian Law School swept it under the carpet till today, and
that my admission was been delayed unnecessarily.”
” Rather they ganged up against me, and delayed my admission
to the Nigerian Law School for four years. But in 2014, after I
pursued the Law school admission from 2012 to 2013 through the
Public Complaints commission, I left the country to volunteer in
the Philippines for the typhoon Yolanda victims with an
America-based organization, called the All Hands Volunteers
(Hands.org).”
In the Philippines, I narrated my ordeals to the United
Nations High Comissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and sought asylum
which partially gave me the opportunity to start my Master’s
programme in Public Administration (in view).
“In 2015, when a new government was sworn in promising to fight
corruption, and ensure good governance, I asked the Philippines
asylum/refugee authorities to allow me go to Nigeria to pursue my
Nigerian Law School case, which was accepted.
“I was in Nigeria in 2015 and I went to the Public Complaints
Commission for my somewhat abandoned case. Noteworthy is the fact
that in the Nigerian Law School’s response to the Public Complaints
Commission, they stated that I would be communicated once the
Council of Legal Education was done with my referred case.
“I love to state that the Nigerian Law School or the Council
of legal Education never communicated me, but I went with a lawyer
to the Public Complaints Commission for the outcome of my somewhat
abandoned case since 2013 I petitioned.”
“Hurriedly, the Public Complaints Commission scribbled something in
a document calling it outcome of its investigation that I should
reapply in 2016, which I did, but I further contested the decision
of the Public Complaints Commission at the National Human Rights
Commission, but the Human Rights Commission stated that it could
not entertain my case because the Public Complaints Commission had
decided my case.”
Along the line, I contacted Bamidele Aturu , of Blessed
memory, before travelling out who later demanded that I pay filing
fee to sue the Council of Legal Education, but that time I was even
living from hand to mouth. Dr. Tahiru Mamman was the Director
General of the Nigerian law School then. I already deposed to an
affidavit to sue the Council of Legal Education at the Federal High
Court in Lagos but to be filed in Abuja being the place of business
of the Council of Legal Education
“I left the country in that 2015, when I saw the Nigerian Law
School would not be possible that particular year again. I went
back to the Philippines continuing my Master’s programme under the
asylum programme.”
“I told them in the Philippines that the travail and the
victimization still continued somewhat, yet unresolved because I
still wanted to sue the Council of Legal Education and possibly
others then, while others advised that I should not, and but wait
for the 2016 admission period.
At a time, I petitioned the United Nations Human Rights
Agency over the denial of my law school admission, but yet to
receive any response from them.”
“In June 2016, I was in the Philippines when a friend and confidant
messaged me that the authorities of the Faculty of Law, University
of Ibadan needed my result and other documents for Law School
admission. At first, I said that all the Faculty of law needed for
my admission should be with them especially in terms of when I
graduated and whether I had graduated or not.”
“I discovered that my statement of result duly signed by the Exams
Officer in the Uniiversity was doubted, and I was asked by the
person helping me in Nigeria to apply to send more documents, I did
and I even sent copy of letter sent to the Solicitors’ Regulatory
Authorities (SRA) in the United Kingdom that I am a graduate of the
University of Ibadan that the University was processing my
certificate. Fellow Nigerians, I must tell that the incumbent
Health Minister, Prof. Adewole Isaac did not release my
certificate, and I was even referred to as a student of the
University of Ibadan even after I became a graduate.”
“For years, the University of Ibadan kept removing my name,
up till now, from the Convocation Book without any reason because I
wrote about sufferings of the students on campus in the University
of Ibadan when a no-cooking policy was declared by the then Vice
Chancellor, Prof. Adewole Isaac, of which it became one of the
issues the students of the University of Ibadan agitated for that
led to suspension of academic activities and Students’ Union by
Prof. Abel Olayinka, the incumbent Vice Chancellor of the
University of Ibadan.”
“Eventually, I forwarded relevant documents to the Faculty of Law
authorities, then I was told that my name and documents had been
forwarded to the Nigerian Law School for admission purpose. I came
to Nigeria again in October, 2016 after taking leave of absence
from my graduate school in the Philippines. But before I left, I
discovered another anomaly that name was omitted from the
Registration list on the portal of the Nigerian law
school.”
“I was advised to go to Abuja to pursue the admission,
I got to Abuja law school campus with a just one shirt and a pair
of trousers thinking it was something I could resolve soonest but I
had to return to Ibadan to pack all my load to return to Abuja,
else they would deny me admission again.”
“Lest I forget, when I first got to the Nigerian Law School,
they denied they received any document for my admission from the
University of Ibadan, but I quickly showed them the decision of the
Public Complaints Commission on my case, then they had no choice
but to comply.”
“A letter I wrote to Mr. Lanre Onadeko (SAN) on November 09,
2016 on the anomaly on my admission was never replied up till date,
but it was rectified after writing the head of the Information and
Communication Unit (ICT), Mr Omoyele, and copying the Secretary to
Council of Legal Education before it was rectified, during session,
not before the academic session. I must state that the Nigerian Law
School and Council of Legal Education never gave me fair hearing
when it received report against me from prof. Oluyemisi
Bamgbose.”
I eventually started admission, and the Council’s communication to
me on my admission was given in February 2017 after repeated
requests, way long after resumption, for the resumption was in
November, 2016, meaning the Council of Legal Education never
communicated me on its decision on my law school admission before
admission exercise, whereas the Council’s decision had been given
since June, 2014.
“I got to know I would reapply through the Public
Complaints Commission in 2015. What was contained in the letter to
me by the Council of Legal Education was that I was given a benefit
of doubt not ‘’a letter of warning’’ as stated in the law school ‘s
statement against me.”
“I challenge the Nigerian Law school to bring out the polo shirt
and inscriptions accused of. As reported by the Punch Newspaper of
Monday 24, 2017, a representative of the University said the
Students’ Representative Council (SRC) regretted issuing a
disclaimer against me.”
“The Nigerian Law School should prove that I had
estranged relationship with my colleagues. It is trite that he who
asserts or alleges must prove.”
kayode Olusegun Bello a student who was expelled by the Nigerian
Law school management has replied the press statement released by
the institution on Wednesday.
Below reads his rejoinder.
First and foremost, I must say a very big thank you all for
your support so far, because without you maybe not a single soul
would have heard about my illegal expulsion from the Nigerian Law
School. All that had happened clearly showed that we cannot rest on
our oars.
However, it is quite shocking and shameful that the
Nigerian Law School which everyone should see as a beacon of light
and hope for justice had degraded to an arena of lies and
deception.
Anyway, I would chronicle my response which dates to October 13,
2008, when I was released from detention over hike in school fees.
I do not want to bore us with details, but comments of those that
knew about it all would show that I was not part of the said
protest of the October 13, 2008, but I was already detained at the
Sango Police station, and Iyaganku Police station subsequently when
the protest broke out.
Today, the report the Nigerian Law School got from Prof.
Oluyemisi Bamgbose, the then Dean of the Faculty of Law, University
of Ibadan was that I was involved in the disruption of peace and
tranquility on campus.
Please, fellow alumni of the University of Ibadan, who
witnessed the 2008 protest on hike in school fees during Professor
Olufemi Bamiro’s regime as the Vice Chancellor of the University of
Ibadan, was I in the protest then? I allow those University of
Ibadan graduates to be my witnesses.
To answer that, if allowed, I was detained for three days
without knowing the offence I committed. One witness whom I
withhold his name later inboxed me that I did not even distribute
flyers as alleged by the authorities of the University of
Ibadan.
“Moreover, I love to state that at no time did the
authorities of the Nigerian Law School wanted to admit me into the
Nigerian law school. The case of my unlawful denial of admission to
the Nigerian Law School was reported by me to the Public Complaints
Commission that stated that I could only reapply to the Nigerian
Law School in 2016 admission period.”
“One of the statements by the Nigerian Law School that caught my
attention was , ‘’ the Dean’s confidential report showed that he
defied the authorities of the University and continued his
programme without serving out the rustication period.”
“It was when his defiance was discovered that he was forced
to comply.’’ I think the Nigerian Law School knows what I don’t
know of. In the University of Ibadan I know of, immediately the
panel or committee rusticates or expels a student, you have to
obey, and the Vice Chancellor would direct that the security
operatives follow you to pack your belongings from the hostel.
Maybe when we get to Court, the Nigerian Law School would
provide when I was forced to comply with rustication”
‘’After his studentship was reinstated, he was unrepentant as the
report indicated his involvement in a case of gross misconduct
(insurbodination), which made the Board of the Faculty of Law to
recommend him for further disciplinary action, with due
respect to those who want us to be fit and proper, this statement
is not complete and correct being that when I was recommended for
the disciplinary action, what happened?
The Dean, Professor Oluyemisi Bamgbose that wrote you did
not tell what happened as she and one Dr. Akintayo John of the
Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan were hell bent on expelling me
from the University of Ibadan.
“The Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan pasted on its
board for information, a summer multi-lateral international
programme in Geneva, Switzerland in June, 2012, I applied and I was
admitted, but I needed fund, then I applied for grant to the then
Vice Chancellor, Professor Adewole Isaac, the incumbent Health
Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, but Dr. Akintayo John,
the Acting Dean, stood against it, and said because a year before,
in 2011 a colleague and now a lawyer.”
“Mr. John Bamgbose in-law to the then Dean of the Faculty of
Law, University of Ibadan, and myself benefitted from the
University of Ibadan because we presented a paper on Climate Change
at a conference in the United kingdom, among other reasons he gave
in writing to malign the approving authority.”
“We represented our University and our dear country,
Nigeria.but because that time around the in-law to the then Dean,
Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose was not involved it was a sin for me to
apply for scholarship or grant from the University of Ibadan, so I
opined. Dr. Akintayo later reported me to the then Dean of the
Faculty of Law, Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose, when she came back that I
was rude to him, and that I said he should act reasonably as to his
discretion not to sign my request to the approving
authorities.”
The matter was reported to the then Vice chancellor of the
University of Ibadan who waded into the matter, and asked the
Faculty of Law to drop any allegation against me, having petitioned
him especially via the facebook.
“A copy of my reply to Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose to act
quickly that I would miss the programme if she did not sign my
introduction letter to the Swiss Embassy was sent to the then
Minister of Education and she wrote me that she received
it.”
“It took the intervention of the then Vice chancellor
that I eventually went for the Swiss programme in the Switzerland
representing my University and country, Nigeria, at the Kofi
Annan’s once-attended institution, Geneva, Switzerland, christened
Graduate Institute. I thought all was over at a time
as the then Dean of the Faculty of Law reconstituted another panel
to go against the decision of the vice chancellor then, prof.
Adewole Isaac, but all were in futility.”
“The then Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Oluyemisi
Bamgbose waited for me at the time to be mobilized for the Nigerian
Law School, as I later got to know through the Public Complaints
Commission that an adverse report was made against me by the then
Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose. Meanwhile,
the Nigerian Law School gave me admission in 2012 but was withdrawn
from its website without any reason.”
“It took longer period before Prof. Oluyemisi Bamgbose
could process my admission and result to the Nigerian Law School,
but at that time I called the attention of the Nigerian Law School
to an anomaly that they admitted two students, one Opadare and
another Chuckwuemeka without complete results from the University
of Ibadan, which the authorities of the University of Ibadan and
the Nigerian Law School swept it under the carpet till today, and
that my admission was been delayed unnecessarily.”
” Rather they ganged up against me, and delayed my admission
to the Nigerian Law School for four years. But in 2014, after I
pursued the Law school admission from 2012 to 2013 through the
Public Complaints commission, I left the country to volunteer in
the Philippines for the typhoon Yolanda victims with an
America-based organization, called the All Hands Volunteers
(Hands.org).”
In the Philippines, I narrated my ordeals to the United
Nations High Comissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and sought asylum
which partially gave me the opportunity to start my Master’s
programme in Public Administration (in view).
“In 2015, when a new government was sworn in promising to fight
corruption, and ensure good governance, I asked the Philippines
asylum/refugee authorities to allow me go to Nigeria to pursue my
Nigerian Law School case, which was accepted.
“I was in Nigeria in 2015 and I went to the Public Complaints
Commission for my somewhat abandoned case. Noteworthy is the fact
that in the Nigerian Law School’s response to the Public Complaints
Commission, they stated that I would be communicated once the
Council of Legal Education was done with my referred case.
“I love to state that the Nigerian Law School or the Council
of legal Education never communicated me, but I went with a lawyer
to the Public Complaints Commission for the outcome of my somewhat
abandoned case since 2013 I petitioned.”
“Hurriedly, the Public Complaints Commission scribbled something in
a document calling it outcome of its investigation that I should
reapply in 2016, which I did, but I further contested the decision
of the Public Complaints Commission at the National Human Rights
Commission, but the Human Rights Commission stated that it could
not entertain my case because the Public Complaints Commission had
decided my case.”
Along the line, I contacted Bamidele Aturu , of Blessed
memory, before travelling out who later demanded that I pay filing
fee to sue the Council of Legal Education, but that time I was even
living from hand to mouth. Dr. Tahiru Mamman was the Director
General of the Nigerian law School then. I already deposed to an
affidavit to sue the Council of Legal Education at the Federal High
Court in Lagos but to be filed in Abuja being the place of business
of the Council of Legal Education
“I left the country in that 2015, when I saw the Nigerian Law
School would not be possible that particular year again. I went
back to the Philippines continuing my Master’s programme under the
asylum programme.”
“I told them in the Philippines that the travail and the
victimization still continued somewhat, yet unresolved because I
still wanted to sue the Council of Legal Education and possibly
others then, while others advised that I should not, and but wait
for the 2016 admission period.
At a time, I petitioned the United Nations Human Rights
Agency over the denial of my law school admission, but yet to
receive any response from them.”
“In June 2016, I was in the Philippines when a friend and confidant
messaged me that the authorities of the Faculty of Law, University
of Ibadan needed my result and other documents for Law School
admission. At first, I said that all the Faculty of law needed for
my admission should be with them especially in terms of when I
graduated and whether I had graduated or not.”
“I discovered that my statement of result duly signed by the Exams
Officer in the Uniiversity was doubted, and I was asked by the
person helping me in Nigeria to apply to send more documents, I did
and I even sent copy of letter sent to the Solicitors’ Regulatory
Authorities (SRA) in the United Kingdom that I am a graduate of the
University of Ibadan that the University was processing my
certificate. Fellow Nigerians, I must tell that the incumbent
Health Minister, Prof. Adewole Isaac did not release my
certificate, and I was even referred to as a student of the
University of Ibadan even after I became a graduate.”
“For years, the University of Ibadan kept removing my name,
up till now, from the Convocation Book without any reason because I
wrote about sufferings of the students on campus in the University
of Ibadan when a no-cooking policy was declared by the then Vice
Chancellor, Prof. Adewole Isaac, of which it became one of the
issues the students of the University of Ibadan agitated for that
led to suspension of academic activities and Students’ Union by
Prof. Abel Olayinka, the incumbent Vice Chancellor of the
University of Ibadan.”
“Eventually, I forwarded relevant documents to the Faculty of Law
authorities, then I was told that my name and documents had been
forwarded to the Nigerian Law School for admission purpose. I came
to Nigeria again in October, 2016 after taking leave of absence
from my graduate school in the Philippines. But before I left, I
discovered another anomaly that name was omitted from the
Registration list on the portal of the Nigerian law
school.”
“I was advised to go to Abuja to pursue the admission,
I got to Abuja law school campus with a just one shirt and a pair
of trousers thinking it was something I could resolve soonest but I
had to return to Ibadan to pack all my load to return to Abuja,
else they would deny me admission again.”
“Lest I forget, when I first got to the Nigerian Law School,
they denied they received any document for my admission from the
University of Ibadan, but I quickly showed them the decision of the
Public Complaints Commission on my case, then they had no choice
but to comply.”
“A letter I wrote to Mr. Lanre Onadeko (SAN) on November 09,
2016 on the anomaly on my admission was never replied up till date,
but it was rectified after writing the head of the Information and
Communication Unit (ICT), Mr Omoyele, and copying the Secretary to
Council of Legal Education before it was rectified, during session,
not before the academic session. I must state that the Nigerian Law
School and Council of Legal Education never gave me fair hearing
when it received report against me from prof. Oluyemisi
Bamgbose.”
I eventually started admission, and the Council’s communication to
me on my admission was given in February 2017 after repeated
requests, way long after resumption, for the resumption was in
November, 2016, meaning the Council of Legal Education never
communicated me on its decision on my law school admission before
admission exercise, whereas the Council’s decision had been given
since June, 2014.
“I got to know I would reapply through the Public
Complaints Commission in 2015. What was contained in the letter to
me by the Council of Legal Education was that I was given a benefit
of doubt not ‘’a letter of warning’’ as stated in the law school ‘s
statement against me.”
“I challenge the Nigerian Law school to bring out the polo shirt
and inscriptions accused of. As reported by the Punch Newspaper of
Monday 24, 2017, a representative of the University said the
Students’ Representative Council (SRC) regretted issuing a
disclaimer against me.”
“The Nigerian Law School should prove that I had
estranged relationship with my colleagues. It is trite that he who
asserts or alleges must prove.”