The House of Representatives has begun investigating the prolonged exclusion of more than 5,000 law graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) from admission into the Nigerian Law School for professional training and Bar examinations.
The investigation followed a petition submitted by the affected graduates under the group, Backlog of Law Graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria, seeking the intervention of the National Assembly.
The House Committee on Public Petitions invited NOUN and the Nigerian Law School, under the Council of Legal Education, to explain the circumstances surrounding the dispute. However, both institutions were absent from the investigative hearing held on September 16, 2026, although they submitted letters explaining their absence and requested new dates.
Representatives of the affected graduates told the committee that they had completed their LLB programmes and should not be penalised because of disagreements between NOUN and regulatory authorities.
The graduates argued that they were admitted into the programme before NOUN suspended further admissions in 2015 and therefore should be allowed to proceed with their professional legal training.
NOUN, in its submission to the committee, said the dispute began in 2015 following an accreditation exercise involving its LLB programme. The university subsequently suspended further admissions into the programme while regulatory issues remained unresolved.
According to NOUN, it submitted a list of 1,883 law graduates to the Council of Legal Education in 2019. It later discovered that 90 graduates had been omitted, bringing the number at the time to 1,973.
The university said the Body of Benchers approved a special remedial programme for NOUN law graduates in 2020 instead of direct admission into Bar Part II.
NOUN later submitted another list containing 2,226 graduates who completed their studies between 2019 and May 2022. The university said the Council of Legal Education rejected the submission, partly over an alleged understanding that the 2019 list represented the total number of NOUN law graduates.
NOUN denied that it continued admitting students after 2015, explaining that the graduates on the later list were students who had been admitted before the suspension but completed their programmes at different times.
The Nigerian Law School also said it was unable to attend the hearing because of an official assignment and expressed its willingness to appear at a rescheduled hearing.
The petition was presented to the House on July 21, 2026. The committee is expected to continue its investigation as it seeks a resolution to the dispute over the eligibility of NOUN law graduates for admission into the Nigerian Law School.
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