Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Graduates of the Faculty of Law, Lagos State University, have accused the Dean of the faculty, Professor K.A. Olatoye, of manipulating the mobilisation exercise for the Nigerian Law School Bar Part II Programme, alleging that at least 16 members of the August 2026 graduating set were mobilised while at least 20 eligible members of the Class of 2025 were not. The affected graduates, who told SaharaReporters they have waited more than a year since completing their LL.B. programme, alleged that the Dean removed their names from the mobilisation list to accommodate students from the 2026 graduating set. They have petitioned the Council of Legal Education, demanding a review of the process and greater transparency in the selection of candidates.
According to the graduates, LASU traditionally mobilises older graduating sets first because of the university's academic calendar and the backlog of graduates awaiting admission into the Nigerian Law School. They said the two sets currently affected are the Class of 2025 and the August 2026 graduating set. Based on established practice, the 2025 graduates were expected to be considered first while the 2026 graduates would ordinarily wait until the following year. One of the affected graduates told SaharaReporters that the mobilisation process began in July 2026, after a message was sent to their class platform on July 5, directing students to submit letters of interest at the Dean's office. "People started submitting on the 7th. On this day, I couldn't submit because my notification of result had not been sent, so I had to wait till 10th of July to submit mine," the graduate said. A student must hold either an LL.B. certificate or a notification of result before submitting a letter of interest for mobilisation. Members of the 2026 graduating set had not completed their examinations at the time, meaning they could not have met the stated requirement. "Shortly after that time, some students tried to submit too, and they were told that the 180 slots on the main list were already complete and that they would be added to the supplementary list, while they rejected the letters of some students for submitting late," the source alleged.
The situation became more contentious in August when the Class of 2025 graduates said they were asked to submit photocopies of their certificates as part of the mobilisation process. "As of the 26th of August, the certificates were ready, and we were asked to submit a photocopy at the Dean's office as part of the law school mobilisation," the source said. "I have to state again that as at this time, the 2026 graduating set does not still have either their certificates or notification of results ready." The graduate alleged that despite this, some members of the August 2026 set were subsequently instructed to submit letters of interest using their school portal results. "The Dean then instructed some juniors to submit letters of interest adding just their school portal result, which was expressly against the requirement: LL.B. certificate or Notification of Result," the source alleged.
The controversy escalated after the Nigerian Law School released a passcode for registration, enabling candidates to determine whether they had been mobilised. "If one uses the code and it doesn't log in, it means he/she was not mobilised," another affected graduate told SaharaReporters. "To our greatest surprise, we found nothing less than 16 students from the 2026 graduating set; as established earlier, these are people who are not eligible to apply for law school." The source further alleged that some names belonging to the Class of 2025 were removed to accommodate the junior graduates. "And apparently, names of students in my class were removed for them to be mobilised, with me being one of those students removed without any explanation or justification whatsoever," the source said.
Another affected graduate described the situation as unfair, alleging that the mobilisation process has departed from the practice previously followed by the university. "It is now a thing of nepotism. Having to benefit the 2026 graduating students ahead of us, which has never been the norm," the source alleged. "A few students were in school today to ask questions, but the responses they got made it clear and obvious that the Dean mobilised those students purely out of interest." The aggrieved graduates alleged a lack of transparency in the process, claiming that the full list of mobilised students was not publicly released. "I also have to state that schools generally make public the list of students mobilised. But when the Head of Class requested that the Dean give him the list, he refused totally," the source alleged. "This lack of transparency only shows that something fishy has gone underneath."
The graduate described the alleged decision of the Dean to mobilise members of the 2026 set ahead of the 2025 graduates as an abuse of administrative authority. "This is a flagrant abuse of power by the Dean," he alleged, arguing that members of the 2026 graduating set could afford to wait until the next mobilisation cycle, particularly because they completed their programme earlier than the normal duration due to LASU's academic calendar. "I must state that the 2026 graduating set used three and a half years to study a five-year course," the law graduate said. "Fortunately for them, it happened as a result of the fast school calendar. It would cost them nothing to wait a year before applying for law school when it is their turn." The graduate further alleged that the mobilised 2026 graduates were not publicly invited to participate in the mobilisation exercise. "I also must state that these are students who weren't contemplating mobilisation, but the Dean expressly instructed those who are in his interest to submit a letter of interest," the source alleged. "This is evidenced by the fact that it was not made public on their class platform for them to apply. Just the selected ones by the Dean are those who applied, and their names were added after removing ours."
The graduates said the alleged manipulation of the mobilisation was particularly painful because members of the Class of 2025 completed their academic programme more than a year ago and complied with the requirements communicated to them. They called for an independent review of the mobilisation list, including an examination of the graduation years and eligibility of all candidates granted access to the Nigerian Law School registration process. They also want the authorities to establish whether candidates who were mobilised had satisfied the requirements applicable to the exercise at the time their names were submitted.
Their specific demands include that "our juniors should not have appeared on our admission list in the first place." According to them, the Dean said that an additional 26 students who were unable to meet the requirements were subsequently included on what he described as a "supplementary list." "However, we maintain that the purported supplementary list is at best a request to the Nigeria Law School for more slots, which the law school may or may not accept," they said. "It is a gamble, not a certainty, and that is why the Dean added the students in the 2026 class to the main list. If it were to be a certainty, he would not have removed the names of the seniors and replaced them with the juniors. In fact, there are persons who graduated as far back as 2023 and 2024 who are yet to go to law school." They further insisted, "If a supplementary list were to exist, it should not have been used to include members of our own class. If members of our class are to be added to the supplementary list, it should only happen if we've exhausted the main 180 slots, not when they removed our names in favor of our juniors. Based on the circumstances, any students who were subsequently considered for admission or placement should have been from the appropriate junior set, rather than students who were already part of our cohort." They said that anyone who cannot log in to the Nigeria Law School Portal has not been officially mobilized, and the 25 students in the class of 2025 have not been able to access the law school portal.
When SaharaReporters contacted the Dean, Professor K.A. Olatoye, for comments on the allegations, he denied the allegations, saying the aggrieved graduates only need to exercise patience to hear from the law school. "I'm unable to have access to official records now because it is the weekend, and there's an ongoing strike. I will make efforts to get relevant information needed to respond to you during the week," Professor Olatoye told SaharaReporters in a WhatsApp message. "All I can say for now is that all of our students who graduated so far and applied for mobilisation have been mobilised, including the complainants. They only need to exercise some patience to hear from the law school."
However, the aggrieved graduates insisted that Professor Olatoye is not telling the truth, stressing that a lot of 2025 class graduates have not been able to log in for their registration, which, according to them, means they have not been mobilized. "The Dean is lying everywhere," one of the aggrieved graduates told SaharaReporters. "A lot of our classmates are unable to log in to the registration portal, which means they aren't mobilized. Most of them were added to the supplementary list, which is not sure at all. The chances are like 10%. But new graduate students were added to our own list."
The controversy has raised concerns about the integrity of the mobilisation process for the Nigerian Law School, a critical gateway for Nigerian law graduates seeking to qualify as legal practitioners. The Council of Legal Education has not yet responded to the graduates' petition. The Dean has promised to provide relevant information during the week when he has access to official records. For the Class of 2025 graduates, the wait continues, and the uncertainty over their mobilisation status remains unresolved.
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