Human Rights Lawyer sues JAMB, demands N3.4bn compensation for candidates

www.odogwublog.com reports that a human rights lawyer, Mr Gozie Francis Moneke has dragged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board before a Federal High Court sitting in Awka, Anambra state.

 Moneke who is also the Executive Director - Human Rights & Empowerment Project (HREP) is asking in a representative action for N3.4 billion compensation for alleged gross violation of the fundamental rights of about 1.7 million candidates who registered for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination

He prayed the court to cause JAMB to refund N2,000 each to the candidates.

He said the process which took physical, mental, financial and psychological tolls on the candidates, including their parents and guardians, violated the fundamental right to the dignity of the candidates under Section 34 (1) (a) of the 1999 constitution.

Moneke also demanded the immediate refund of the  fees of N2,500 and N700 imposed on the candidates for data correction and CBT centre registration charges respectively.

 He said "These extortionate and exploitative fees are in violation of candidates' right to dignity to human person guaranteed under Section 34 (1) (a) of the Nigerian constitution and article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Ratification & Enforcement) Act, 1983" he said.

Moneke further accused JAMB of providing the UTME syllabus and other information relevant to the examination only in an internet enabled Computer Disc, which he said, was a clear discrimination against thousands of candidates who lacked access to computer or internet.

He added that: ”This process subjected the candidates to disability by being prevented from preparing adequately for the examination which violated their right to freedom from discrimination guaranteed under Section 42 (1) & (2) of  the 1999 Nigerian constitution and article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Right".



His plea read in part “An order compelling the Respondent to refund all the candidates for the 2017 UTME the sum of N700  each being the exploitative fee paid as CBT Centre registration fee.
“An order compelling the respondent to refund each of the candidates for the 2017 UTME who paid for it, the exploitative sum of N2, 500 levied on them by the Respondent as Data Correction fee.
6. An order  compelling the respondent to pay to all the candidates who registered for the 2017 UTME the sum of N2, 000 each as compensation for gross violation of their right to the dignity of the human person.
‘’ An order restraining the respondent henceforth from imposing on prospective candidates the same cumbersome, exploitative and discriminative application procedure prescribed by it for the 2017 UTME application process.
“And for such further order or other orders as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances”.