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Law Firm Moves Against Universities Over Post-UTME Glitch

A Nigerian law firm, F.K. Nnadi and Co., has indicated its intention to file a lawsuit against the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife due to purported irregularities in their 2025 Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (Post-UTME).

In separate pre-action notices penned by Kene Nnadi and directed at both universities, the firm accused them of assigning unwarrantedly low scores and withholding results for certain candidates without any justification.

It cautioned that such actions endanger the admission prospects for numerous applicants. The law firm has also submitted petitions to the House of Representatives and the National Universities Commission (NUC), seeking their intervention.

The notices and petitions were disclosed by Alex Onyia, the chief executive officer of Educare, a school software solution provider, who has himself threatened to take legal action against the universities for the alleged violations.

UNILAG has refuted the claims, asserting that all instances identified for malpractice adhered to “clear violations of established examination guidelines.”

As for OAU, its spokesperson, Abiodun Olarewaju,, has not yet responded to PREMIUM TIMES’ inquiry about whether the university is aware of the raised concerns or if it has received the pre-action notice.

Concerns regarding Post-UTME

In a series of tweets, Mr. Onyia charged that both universities utilized the same software for the Post-UTME, which harbored a significant bug that erroneously flagged candidates for malpractice and mismatched scores for others.

“UNILAG, OAU, and UI are toying with the futures of young Nigerians,” he expressed in one tweet. “If prompt action isn’t taken, we will pursue legal action against them. There was a significant bug and glitch within the Web Test software that impacted the students.”

Mr. Onyia mentioned compiling 752 reports from candidates reportedly affected by the glitch.

He has also offered a complimentary and independent audit for any university willing to participate.

Earlier this year, Mr. Onyia raised similar issues following the release of the UTME results.

He was vindicated when the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), which administers the UTME, capitulated to public demand to reassess the results and discovered glitches, leading to an apology and rescheduling of the Computer-Based Test (CBT) for the affected candidates.

Pre-action notice and petitions

In the pre-action notice dated September 11 and sent to both universities, the law firm is requesting that candidates or an independent third party be permitted access to their Post-UTME answer sheets and the grading scheme employed to confirm the evaluation.

Additionally, it calls for the release of the Post-UTME results that have been withheld.

The firm also urges that candidates flagged for malpractice be granted a proper, fair opportunity to defend themselves before any punitive measures are taken against them.

While the law firm allocated three months for OAU to comply with its requests, it granted UNILAG a timeframe of 30 days.

Should the universities neglect to address the requests within the specified time, the law firm stated it will initiate legal proceedings against the institutions at a Federal High Court “to uphold our clients’ fundamental rights and seek suitable remedies, including but not limited to declaratory reliefs, orders of mandamus, injunctions, and damages, without further recourse to you.”

UNILAG has refuted claims that a system or technical error influenced the students identified for malpractice.

In a statement from its spokesperson, Adejoke Alaga-Ibraheem, the university asserted that the flagged cases were due to obvious breaches of established exam protocols.

“The identification of these cases was based on various monitoring methods, including secure video surveillance, implemented to uphold the screening process’s integrity,” the statement noted.

Call for action

The law firm has also reached out to the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Abdullahi Ribadu, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, via the Chairperson of the House Committee on Tertiary Education and Services, Miriam Onuoha.

In the petitions, the law firm requested an inquiry into the procedure of the 2025 Post-UTME examinations at UNILAG and OAU.

It urged that the universities provide a fair hearing for all students flagged for malpractice prior to any disciplinary measures being taken against them.

The petition also called for the NUC to issue clear policy guidelines to all Nigerian universities to guarantee that Post-UTME examinations are carried out with fairness, accountability, and due process.

“Direct both institutions to release the withheld results of students who have not been accused of any misconduct.

“Ensure that affected students have access to their answer sheets and the grading criteria used, in the interest of transparency,” the petition states.

A challenging year for national examinations
This year, two national exams experienced ‘glitches’ that impacted the results of Nigerian students, which unintentionally diminished trust in the examination authorities.

When JAMB announced the 2025 UTME results in May, it faced immediate dissatisfaction as some candidates claimed they performed better than the scores indicated.

After initially holding that the scores accurately reflected their performance, JAMB conceded to pressure and reassessed the results.

The reassessment revealed that a glitch affected over 370,000 candidates, leading JAMB to reschedule the UTME for them.

However, discontent persists as other candidates from regions deemed unaffected by JAMB also asserted they had performed better than their assigned scores.

Later in the year, shortly after releasing the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) temporarily suspended the result checker and requested candidates to verify their results again following the discovery of technical issues.

WAEC’s review of the WASSCE results and the subsequent release of corrected results increased the performance rate from 38 percent to 62 percent.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government has announced a complete transition of the Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE) to Computer-Based Testing (CBT).