{"id":15118,"date":"2026-11-11T14:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T14:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/11\/court-fixes-february-2027-hearing-in-nnajis-suit-against-unn-over-certificate-forgery-allegations-businessday-ng\/"},"modified":"2026-11-11T14:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T14:47:07","slug":"court-fixes-february-2027-hearing-in-nnajis-suit-against-unn-over-certificate-forgery-allegations-businessday-ng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/11\/court-fixes-february-2027-hearing-in-nnajis-suit-against-unn-over-certificate-forgery-allegations-businessday-ng\/","title":{"rendered":"Court fixes February 2027 hearing in Nnaji\u2019s suit against UNN over certificate forgery allegations – Businessday NG"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned a suit filed by Uche Nnaji, former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, against the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and others until February 15, 2027, for hearing.\n<\/p>\n

The suit followed allegations of certificate forgery levelled against the former minister, who is seeking court orders compelling the university to release his academic transcript and restraining its officials from tampering with his academic records.\n<\/p>\n

Justice Hauwa Yilwa adjourned the matter on Wednesday after the counsel to the first respondent, the Minister of Education, was absent from court.\n<\/p>\n

At the proceedings, Akintola Makinde, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), counsel to Nnaji, informed the court that the minister was not represented.\n<\/p>\n

He also drew attention to a pending application seeking to regularise processes filed in the suit, saying their records showed that hearing notices had been served on the parties.<\/p>\n

Chris Uche, SAN, who appeared for the third to seventh respondents, told the court that it had, on January 8, granted part of an earlier application seeking to regularise their processes, while the second prayer remained outstanding.\n<\/p>\n

He urged the court to deem the relevant processes as duly served.\n<\/p>\n

In response, Yilwa acknowledged that she had granted the first prayer but was yet to rule on the second. Uche assured the court that the outstanding issues would be addressed administratively.\n<\/p>\n

Read also:\u00a0Uche Nnaji, ex-technology minister who resigned over certificate forgery, secures Enugu guber ticket<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Following the submissions, the parties agreed to an adjournment, and the judge fixed February 15, 2027, for hearing.<\/p>\n

In the suit marked FHC\/ABJ\/CS\/1909\/2025, Nnaji joined the Minister of Education, the National Universities Commission (NUC), UNN and the university\u2019s vice-chancellor, Prof. Ortuanya, as the first to fourth respondents.\n<\/p>\n

The university\u2019s registrar, Ujam, and its Senate were also joined as the fifth to seventh respondents.\n<\/p>\n

Nnaji had, in an ex parte application, sought leave to commence proceedings through prerogative writs to prevent the university and its officials from tampering with his academic records.\n<\/p>\n

He also sought an order of mandamus compelling UNN to release his academic transcript and asking the Minister of Education and the NUC to use their supervisory powers to ensure compliance.\n<\/p>\n

Additionally, he sought an interim injunction restraining the university and its officials from altering or tampering with his academic records pending the determination of the substantive suit.<\/p>\n

However, the third to seventh respondents filed a preliminary objection seeking the dismissal of the suit for want of jurisdiction. They also asked the court to award substantial costs against Nnaji.\n<\/p>\n

In their nine-ground objection, the respondents argued that the application for leave to commence the proceedings was filed outside the three months prescribed by Order 34 Rule 4(1) of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules, 2019.\n<\/p>\n

They also relied on Section 2(a) of the Public Officers Protection Act, 2004, arguing that the suit was statute-barred and therefore incompetent.\n<\/p>\n

The respondents further contended that Nnaji had adopted the wrong procedure by filing a motion on notice instead of an originating motion, as required under Order 34 Rule 5(1) of the Federal High Court Rules.\n<\/p>\n

They described the application as premature and speculative, arguing that there was no evidence that Nnaji had previously requested his academic records and been denied access or that the university had interfered with them before the suit was filed.<\/p>\n

The respondents also challenged the court\u2019s jurisdiction to determine disputes involving student academic records, examinations, results and transcripts, arguing that such matters did not fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court under Section 251(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.\n<\/p>\n

They further argued that Nnaji had not exhausted available internal remedies and had not established any breach of his fundamental rights.\n<\/p>\n

The respondents also maintained that the suit disclosed no reasonable cause of action against them, particularly Ortuanya, whom they said acted in his official capacity as vice-chancellor of the university.<\/p>\n

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Businessday NG<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned a suit filed by Uche Nnaji, former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, against the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and others… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}