Suit seeking stoppage of N235, 000 Law School School fee dismissed

Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, yesterday threw out a suit seeking to stop the Council of Legal Education (CLE) from implementing its fee regime in the nation’s Law School.
A Lagos lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, instituted the suit against the Council of Legal Education.
Justice Auta held that Aturu had no locus standi to institute the suit. In the suit, Aturu was contending that the N235, 000 being charged by CLE as school fee per student was excessive.

He added that the fee constituted an abuse to the right to education. Aturu prayed the court to restrain CLE from further charging the fee. CLE had challenged the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the case on the grounds that the subject of the suit was not justiciable and that the plaintiff lacked the locus standi to initiate the case.

Justice Auta held that a plaintiff could only succeed with a fundamental rights suit if he is able to show how his right was breached by the action he is complaining about.

The judge noted that Aturu though claimed to be sponsoring some students in the Law School, and had paid the fees of others, he failed to provide proof of his payment. Justice Auta added that Aturu failed to name the students he was sponsoring and those he had sponsored in the past to justify his claim that the increase in the school fee had caused him hardship.