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WHY LAW SCHOOL EXPELLED STUDENT
By Udanta Ugante
Monday, 31st July, 2017
The
Nigerian Law School recently explained why it expelled its student, Kayode
Bello in the Bwari, Abuja Campus of the Institution after protesting against
seat reservation in a lecture room.
In
a statement signed by Chinedu Ukekwe, the Head of Information and Protocol of
the institution stated that it became necessary to expel Bello for what the
statement described as “constant disruptive conduct” before, during and after
the seat reservation crisis. The statement added that Bello had an antecedent
of negative behaviour having been allegedly expelled by the University of
Ibadan during the 2008/2009 academic session adding that on the basis of that,
his application to the Law School in 2012 was referred to the Council of Legal
Education which resolved that the student should not be offered admission until
2017.
The
statement added that Bello’s penchant for misbehavior recently came to the fore
when a Senior Advocate of Nigeria’s Law Firm had to terminate his stay in the
Firm where he was attached during the just concluded internship exercise by all
students of the Law School.
On
the incident leading to the expulsion of the student, the statement stated that
report gathered from Bello’s colleagues shows that the altercation that arose
between the expelled student and a female student over a preferred seat was
unfortunate as there were enough seats for all the students.
The
statement further stated that it was Bello who left his seat and moved over to
the one occupied by the female student who had visited the convenient room. The
statement further stated that the Head of Students’ Affairs Department issued
him a query for his “disorderly behavior” but Bello failed to address the issue
and went into “irrelevant narration” alleging bias by the officials and further
embarked on a solo protest around the school premises wearing a polo shirt with
“inciting inscriptions”.
According
to the statement, “the student’s continued disruptive behavior raised concern
among his colleagues prompting the students Representative Council to issue a
disclaimer of his actions which was addressed to the Head of Academics on March
21, 2017” continuing, the statement stated that following the disclaimer and
Bello’s continued acts of intransigence and nuisance in the hostel, the
Students’ Affairs Officer issued him another query but he refused to accept it.
It added that due to “his estranged relationship with his colleagues and to
avoid any breakdown of law and peaceful co-existence a letter of advice was
written to him to vacate the hostel in his interest”. However, Bello, according
to the statement, refused to accept the letter, but chose to go to Bwari
Divisional Police Headquarters and laid a complaint of criminal intimidation
against the management of the Law School and sought the arrest of all its
officers. It was also alleged that Bello further urged the Police to invite the
Chairman, Council of Legal Education for interrogation.
The
statement continued that as a result of the development, Bello was invited
along with the female student he had an altercation with; the Chairman of the
Students’ Representative Council and the Auditorium Marshall to appear before
the Students’ Misconduct Committee which probed the student’s alleged various
infractions of the students’ code of conduct.
It
was said that Bello received the letter of invitation but refused to
acknowledge receipts of same and also failed to appear before the Committee. At
conclusion of its deliberations, the committee was said to have found Bello
liable of the allegations against him, noting that; “The Council of Legal
Education was magnanimous in its decision to approve the admission of Mr. Bello
to the Nigerian Law School despite the adverse report from his University.
Bello lacks the core attributes disposition and the comportment of an aspirant
to the Bar”.
According
to the statement, “The Committee therefore, recommended his expulsion from the
Nigerian Law School”.
The Committee report was said to have been
considered by the Council of Legal Education at its meeting of July 2017 which
approved the recommendations accordingly.
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