UNIJOS Mistakenly Awards First Class Degree To Law Graduands

Nearly 20 graduands from the Department of Law at the University of Jos have been erroneously awarded First Class degrees by the university, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

The error, which occurred on the university’s convocation ceremony web portal, saw several graduands of the department’s 2015/2016 academic session bagging First Class degrees.

The 2015/2016 set of Law students at the university produced only one First Class graduand, Olusegun Pelumi Adewunmi.

Ahead of the university’s convocation ceremony on June 23, the graduands were instructed to check the website to ensure their information were correct.

Several graduands from the Law Department who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said they logged on to discover they had been awarded a higher class of degree.

“I have a 2.1 (Second Class Upper Division) but my class of degree on that page was First Class,” one of the graduands who requested not to be named said.

“I saw it yesterday and I tried correcting it. I was thinking it was the NUC, there was a time they were trying to reduce the grading system like those people on 4 points, First Class, so I was thinking maybe that was what happened.

“I tried communicating with some of my mates in class and they said it was an error.”

Another graduand, Collins Elechi, said it’s likely to be a clerical error.

“Prior to now everybody knew their classes of degree,” said Mr Elechi, who also graduated with a Second Class Upper but saw ‘First Class’ on the university’s website.
“It shouldn’t be that way, it should be corrected. I understand it’s a human system and sometimes these things happen, I like people to be given benefit of doubt.”
When contacted, Clement Dakkas, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, described it as “strange.”

“This is news to me,” Mr Dakkas, a professor of Law, told PREMIUM TIMES.

“Matters of this nature are addressed by the Registrar, but my recollection is that you know in the entire history of the university, we have produced only three First Class in Law. The first in 1980, the second in 1990 – and incidentally I was the second in 1990 – and then one young man, I think, a year ago.

“So to have more than one clearly there must be an error somewhere.”

Ishaya Tanko, a professor and the university’s Director of ICT, said he was unaware of the development.
“What I’m going to do is I’m going to report now, I’ll take that up and get the appropriate authorities to confirm.”