Despite Redeemer’s University (RUN) in Osun State claiming accreditation, graduates of its Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) programme are complaining that they cannot go to law school.

Some frustrated graduates said they had waited hopelessly for two years and could not risk another year without proceeding.

A former law student at the school told FIJ that although students were rushed during their final exams for pre-law school training, they hadn’t been admitted to the Nigerian Law School (NLS) two years later.

The student said that before graduation, the faculty lecturers boasted full accreditation status from the National University Commission and the Council of Legal Education but no one had been called up upon graduation.

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According to this source, concerned students wrote to the management of the institution and Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which birthed the university, in 2023 but got no response.

“We also wrote to Pastor Leke Adeboye, who said he was not in the capacity to take action except the school management contacted them at the time. Several parents of the graduates wrote to the school, but no reasonable response was given except ‘let’s keep hoping’. To date, the school hasn’t once addressed us concerning this issue and has disrespected our plea for official communication,” the student said.

He said the representative of the Redeemer’s University Alumni Association promised them feedback on their complaint but failed to do so.

“It got to the point that the spokesperson of the RUN alumni association gaslighted us on our set alumni WhatsApp group chat, claiming the school is ‘up and doing’ as regards this issue. Our mates are now our seniors because of the principle of seniority in law,” the student explained.

“We demand compensation for the intentional waste of our precious two years, official communication as to the state of our admission into the NLS, a public apology to the parents and students for outrightly disregarding our call for official communication, and, lastly, our outright admission into the NLS.”

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Another student who doesn’t want her name mentioned told FIJ that the institution that empowered her to be morally upright had failed to admit its wrongdoing and even resolve it.

As a student of the pioneer law set at the university, she and other students asked the members of the faculty and the then dean whether the faculty was accredited and if they would be heading to the Nigerian Law School, but their replies were not affirmative because they lacked evidence to show.

After the graduation of the pioneer set in 2022, there was no formal notice from the management or faculty of law, except for false hope with little evidence, which came after much begging.

She said in March 2023, she saw the name of her university uploaded on the list of accredited law faculties with a quota of 50 students, but the joy that came with the news was short-lived because it never materialised.

“In July 2023, the dean of the law faculty had a Zoom meeting with parents and students. I did not get anything tangible from the meeting; the only information I left with was that the dean was leaving after his tenure expired and we were not going to law school for the next session in 2023/2024,” she told FIJ.

“Even after this meeting, there was no formal message from the school or faculty with updates or progress reports. We were left to figure out the conundrum we had been put into by asking relatives who are knowledgeable about Nigerian law school matters and accreditation assessments.

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“Now we are in February 2024, and the Nigerian Law School has resumed with no information from our school, no memo, and no notice. In my personal opinion, I feel the school and faculty of law have moved on with their lives and have left us to live in a total desert of confusion and uncertainty.”

Another female student, whose testimony is similar, said the university gave students the impression that the faculty of law was accredited but failed to meet the requirements needed for a standard faculty of law and consistently refused to do the right thing.

“After convocation in October 2022, no one communicated anything to us. We were just left hanging,” the student said.

Most of us decided to go for our service year when nothing was forthcoming from the authorities.

There has been no apology or information about where we stand. No one has thought it wise to communicate formally with us since 2022 – a whole faith-based institution,” she said.

A student who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that whenever Femi Bellos, an alumni relations official, is contacted, he threatens students.

When FIJ called Prof. Ahmed Yerima, the deputy vice chancellor of the institution, he asked this reporter to call back. When this reporter did, he did not take his calls. A text sent to him was unanswered at press time.