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Some Cameroonians from the North West and South West Regions as well as some Francophones are said to have been denied admission in a law school in Nigeria.
One of the reasons is said to be as a result of fraudulent certificates by some of the students as well as the inability of some French speaking Cameroonians to accurately express themselves in English.
In a bid to resolve the issue, the Cameroon High Commissioner to Nigeria is said to have dispatched the Cultural and Educational Attaché at the Cameroon High Commission to meet with the school authorities for first hand information. The findings, the students say, were however never made to them.
The Cameroon students say they later received a quit notice to vacate the student accommodation centre within 24hrs.
This year too, no students from Soa gained admission into the law school.
To remedy the situation, some lawyers in Cameroon say the law school should take those with common law certificates from the University and send back those with a civil law back ground. French speaking students and lawyers have rejected the idea, stating that the admission rules do not specifically request only those with common law degrees.
Reacting to the recent happenings, Barrister Tamfu Richard noted that the problem originated from past cases of fraud by Cameroon students.
“I am a product of the Nigeria Law School, Abuja and for the past two or three years a lot of fake or falsified documents have been noticed by the Council of Legal Education,” he says.
“Applicants filed in their application with fake transcripts and so it has caused an uncomfortable situation there and loss of trust by the institution. For this entry session, all students who applied into the school and presented documents as graduates from the University of Soa, their admissions were withheld as the school requested that a representative from the University of Soa should come to clarify the situation,” he adds.
Students who’s cases have been rectified, he explained, have been admitted without any issues.
“I have a student that I recommended who was in a similar situation but her situation was regularised,” he says.
Due to the lack of a law school in Cameroon, many law students are compelled to go study in Nigeria to make it easier to be called to the bar.
