Aggrieved students of the University of Calabar Faculty of Engineering, have dragged the institution before the federal high court in Calabar, over their demotion following the failure of the university to secure the National Universities Commission (NUC) accreditation for their department.
The students numbering over 200 are suing the university and five others claiming over N500 million as general damages and special expenses for breach of trust and others. The case was constituted by Idiong Ekpedeme, Victor Agbontaem, and Peter Abasiekong Stephens through their lawyer, Mr. Ozinko Ozinko.
The students who were in their 400 and 300 levels, were demoted in 2021 to 200 levels by the university authority after the school failed the NUC resource verification exercise. Those in two Departments (Electrical and Electronics and Computer Engineering) were totally scrapped out by NUC. The NUC had stated that the university management did not notify or get approval from the commission before commencing the program.
In the suit, the students opined that the actions of the school management were unlawful, negligent, deceitful, tortuous, criminal, highly reprehensible, breach of trust, unconstitutional, scandalous and amounts to a violent assault on their future and academic rights which are inalienable, inviolable and inherent.
