* Admits It Was Unaware He Was At Law School
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/TheNigerialawyer-WhatsApp-Channel1.jpg")
The National Youth Service Corps has formally declined a petition seeking the withdrawal of the Certificate of National Service issued to Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Benjamin Okezie Kalu, confirming that he was mobilised for the 2010 Batch A service year, deployed to Enugu State, served actively at the Chairman’s Office of the Enugu Local Government Area Headquarters, was paid all his allowances “as and when due,” and was duly issued his certificate upon completion, but critically admitting that “at the time he was mobilised for National Service and throughout his service year, the NYSC was unaware of his alleged enrolment at the Nigerian Law School.”
The NYSC’s response, contained in a letter dated March 25, 2026, signed by C.U. Ogar, Director of Legal Services, and addressed to the petitioner’s law firm, Aikpokpo, Okeregha & Co., effectively confirms the central factual allegation in the petition before the Council of Legal Education: that Kalu participated in the NYSC programme during the same period he was enrolled at the Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus, and that the NYSC was not informed of his Law School enrolment.
TheNigeriaLawyer understands that the petitioner, John Aikpokpo Martins Esq., has since forwarded the NYSC’s reply to the Council of Legal Education to attest to the fact that the NYSC has confirmed Kalu served fully and did not disclose to the Corps that he was in the Law School during his service year, providing the three-member ad hoc committee investigating the petition against Qualifying Certificate No. 051144 with official documentary evidence from a federal institution confirming the overlapping timelines that form the basis of the complaint.
The NYSC’s letter, bearing reference number NYSC/LEG/CWOO/VOL.2/2019/T./90, responded to a petition dated January 21, 2026, in which Martins had urged the Corps to immediately withdraw the Certificate of National Service No. A001773067 dated March 8, 2011, and prosecute Kalu for allegedly contravening Section 13 of the National Youth Service Corps Act, Cap. N84, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
The NYSC provided a detailed account of Kalu’s participation in the scheme.
“Our records show that Benjamin Okezie Kalu was mobilised for National Service during the 2010 Batch A service year with Call-Up Number NYSC/CAL/2010/011160 and deployed to Enugu State,” the NYSC stated, confirming he was registered and issued Code Number EN/10A/0567.
“He did his Primary Assignment in the Chairman’s Office, Enugu Local Government Area Headquarters. He actively served during the service year and was paid all his allowances as and when due,” the Corps stated.
The NYSC annexed three documents to support its position: a copy of the Corps Members Allowance Payment Progression (Annexure A), the Certificate of National Service No. A001773067 (Annexure B), and the relevant page of the Certificate Issuance Register (Annexure C).
The documentation establishes beyond question that Kalu was not merely registered for NYSC but actively participated throughout the service year, attended his place of primary assignment, and collected his monthly allowances — all activities that require physical presence and regular attendance.
The NYSC addressed the discrepancy between the names “Benjamin Okezie Kalu” and “Benjamin Okezie Osisiogu” that appears across different documents.
“The name ‘Benjamin Okezie Kalu’ is the same person as ‘Benjamin Okezie Osisiogu’. The Affidavit of Change of Name, sworn to on 10th January, 2011 and attached to your letter indicated a change of name from ‘Osisiogu Benjamin Okezie’ to ‘Benjamin Okezie Kalu’, prior to his completion of National Service on 8th March, 2011,” the NYSC stated.
The confirmation that the two names refer to the same person is significant because Kalu registered at the Nigerian Law School under the name “Osisiogu Benjamin Okezie” and completed NYSC under what would become “Benjamin Okezie Kalu” after the name change, linking the Law School registration form and the NYSC service records to the same individual.
The NYSC declined the petitioner’s request on the basis that from the Corps’ perspective, Kalu was qualified for mobilisation and there was nothing in its records to suggest he should not have been mobilised.
“Benjamin Okezie Kalu at all material time during his mobilisation in 2010 was qualified for National Service and there was nothing to prevent him from being mobilised,” the Corps stated.
“At the time he was mobilised for National Service and throughout his service year, the NYSC was unaware of his alleged enrolment at the Nigerian Law School. In the light of the foregoing, your request for immediate withdrawal of the CNS issued to Benjamin Okezie Kalu is hereby declined,” the NYSC concluded.
The NYSC’s position is essentially that it cannot be held responsible for a situation it did not know about. If Kalu did not disclose his Law School enrolment to the Corps, and the Corps had no independent means of discovering it, the NYSC regards its own process as having been properly followed. The certificate it issued was valid based on the information available to it at the time.
However, the NYSC’s admission that it “was unaware of his alleged enrolment at the Nigerian Law School” is a double-edged sword for Kalu. While it protects the NYSC certificate from withdrawal, it simultaneously confirms that Kalu did not disclose his Law School status to the NYSC, raising questions about non-disclosure to both institutions simultaneously.
The NYSC’s confirmation of Kalu’s active service during 2010-2011 must be read alongside the solemn declaration he signed on the Nigerian Law School registration form, which has now become the central document in the Council of Legal Education investigation.
The Law School registration form, bearing Registration Number EN/10/166 at the Nigerian Law School Enugu Campus, records the following details:
Name: Osisiogu Benjamin Okezie. University attended for LL.B Degree: University of Calabar. Residential address during school session: 76 Factory Road, Umuahia, Abia State. State of Origin: Abia State. Date commenced attendance at School: 19th April, 2010.
Under the declaration section of the form, Kalu signed the following statement on April 23, 2010:
“I, Mr. Benjamin Okezie Osisiogu, of 76 Factory Road, Umuahia, Abia State, hereby declare on my honour that I am not and will not be engaged in any employment nor serve in the National Youth Service Corps during the period of my course at the Nigerian Law School.”
NYSC Response to Aikpkpo 1The Timeline Contradiction
The NYSC’s letter and the Law School registration form, when read together, establish the following timeline.
March 9, 2010: Kalu was mobilised for NYSC 2010 Batch A service year.
April 19, 2010: Kalu commenced attendance at the Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus.
April 23, 2010: Kalu signed a declaration at the Law School stating he “is not and will not be” serving in the NYSC during his Law School course.
The declaration was signed approximately six weeks after his NYSC mobilisation. At the time he declared “on my honour” that he was not serving in the NYSC, he was already mobilised, assigned a call-up number (NYSC/CAL/2010/011160), deployed to Enugu State, and registered with the Corps.
The NYSC service continued from March 9, 2010, to March 8, 2011. The Law School enrolment ran from April 2010 to approximately September 2011. The overlap is not marginal or incidental. It encompasses virtually the entire NYSC service year and a substantial portion of the Law School programme.
Throughout this period, according to the NYSC, Kalu “actively served during the service year and was paid all his allowances as and when due,” while simultaneously being enrolled at the Law School where he had declared he would not be engaged in NYSC service.
Legal commentators have described the situation as a clear breach of a solemn declaration that goes to the heart of the “fit and proper” standard required for admission to the Nigerian Bar.
“On his Nigerian Law School registration form, Kalu signed a declaration that he ‘is not and will not be engaged in any employment nor serve in the National Youth Service Corps during the period of his course at the Law School.’ Public reports indicate that, contrary to this undertaking, he was mobilised for NYSC from 9 March 2010 to 8 March 2011 while enrolled at the Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus, from April 2010 to about September 2011,” the analysis states.
“The central complaint before the Council of Legal Education is precisely that he combined NYSC with Law School in direct conflict with the written commitment he gave to the institution,” commentators have noted.
The issue is not merely one of regulatory compliance but of character. “The Nigerian Law School and the wider legal profession treat ‘fit and proper’ as a question of character, integrity and honesty, not merely of academic performance,” the commentary states.
“An aspirant to the Bar must show respect for lawful regulations and for solemn declarations made to professional bodies; deliberately making a false or misleading declaration, or acting in a manner inconsistent with it, undermines the trust that underpins the grant of a qualifying certificate.”
The petition before the Council of Legal Education asks a fundamental question: whether a person who signed a solemn declaration stating he was not and would not be serving in the NYSC, at a time when NYSC records confirm he was actively serving, should continue to be regarded as “fit and proper” to hold the privileges of the Bar.
“The issue of fitness arises from whether a candidate has misled the Council of Legal Education or disregarded its ethical requirements,” the commentary states.
“Petitioners have asked the Council of Legal Education to scrutinise the overlapping timelines and the declaration, and, if a breach is established, to apply sanctions to protect the ‘prestige and sanctity’ of the legal profession.”
“The question remains whether a person who breached such a declaration should continue to be regarded as fit and proper for the privileges of the Bar,” the analysis concludes.
The Council of Legal Education, in its letter dated April 21, 2026, signed by Secretary to the Council and Director of Administration Ms. Aderonke O. Osho, informed Kalu that it had received a petition dated March 16, 2026, requesting the withdrawal and cancellation of his Qualifying Certificate No. 051144.
The Council stated that at its sitting on Friday, April 17, 2026, it constituted a three-member ad hoc committee to investigate the petition.
“The Committee has requested that you submit a written response to the petition within seven (7) days from the date hereof, to enable the Committee to expeditiously carry out its assignment. The Committee may also require your personal appearance at any stage of its work, if deemed necessary,” the Council’s letter stated.
The seven-day deadline from April 21 would have fallen on April 28. Whether the Deputy Speaker has submitted his response is not publicly known.
TheNigeriaLawyer understands that Martins has forwarded the NYSC’s response to the Council of Legal Education, providing the investigating committee with official confirmation from a federal institution that:
Kalu was mobilised for NYSC in March 2010, before he commenced Law School attendance in April 2010.
He actively served throughout the service year, performing his primary assignment and collecting allowances.
The NYSC was unaware of his Law School enrolment, meaning he did not disclose it to the Corps.
He is the same person who registered at the Law School as “Osisiogu Benjamin Okezie” and completed NYSC as “Benjamin Okezie Kalu,” having changed his name by affidavit on January 10, 2011.
This evidence, combined with the Law School registration form bearing his declaration that he was not and would not be serving in the NYSC, presents the committee with a documented case where two official records from two separate federal institutions establish that a candidate made a declaration to one institution that was contradicted by his documented participation in another institution during the same period.
Kalu’s solicitors have previously branded the petition as “fundamentally deficient in law” and “dead on arrival,” advancing three core arguments: that the Council lacks express power to withdraw a certificate after the fact except in cases of criminal misconduct established through formal proceedings; that the declaration relied upon is unsworn and carries no legal weight; and that no statute, regulation, or convention expressly prohibited concurrent participation in Law School and NYSC at the time.
However, as Dr. Ifeanyi Dike observed in his analysis, the legal team “appears to emphasise the absence of a prohibition more than it asserts a clear factual denial.”
“The real reassurance the public and the profession need is not that ‘no rule expressly banned it,’ but whether the alleged concurrency did or did not occur, and if it did, how it was managed within the requirements of both institutions,” Dr. Dike stated.
The NYSC’s letter, by confirming the concurrency while simultaneously confirming that Kalu did not disclose his Law School enrolment to the Corps, makes the factual question increasingly difficult to answer with a jurisdictional objection alone.
Commentators have framed the case as a test of the legal profession’s commitment to its own standards.
“It is time to save the Bar and the legal profession, and it is our earnest hope that the Law School will lead this redemption,” one analysis concluded.
The sentiment reflects a broader concern that if the Council of Legal Education accepts the argument that no express prohibition existed and therefore no violation occurred, it would establish a precedent that solemn declarations on registration forms carry no consequence, that candidates can make commitments to the institution that they have no intention of honouring, and that the “fit and proper” standard is a formality rather than a substantive ethical requirement.
The Council’s three-member committee must now weigh the NYSC’s confirmation, the Law School registration form, the overlapping timelines, and the Deputy Speaker’s response, and determine whether a qualifying certificate obtained in circumstances where the holder signed a declaration contradicted by his own documented conduct should stand or fall.
For the legal profession, the answer will define whether the standards it demands of aspiring lawyers apply equally to all, or whether, as with so many other institutions in Nigeria, the rules bend for those with sufficient political power to resist their application.
As the commentary stated: “The question remains whether a person who breached such a declaration should continue to be regarded as fit and proper for the privileges of the Bar.”
The Council of Legal Education holds the answer. The profession awaits.
The book, titled The Law of Torts in Nigeria: A Functional Approach, authored by Professor Hagler Sunny Okorie Ph.D and Ikeocha, Nathaniel Ngozi Esq, offers law students, practitioners, and academics a comprehensive guide to understanding and applying tort law in Nigerian courts. Interested buyers can place orders via the following contact numbers: 08028636615, 08037667945, 08032253813, or +234 902 196 2209.
______________________________________________________________________
[A MUST HAVE] Evidence Act Demystified With Recent And Contemporary Cases And Materials
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR LAWYERS: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE
Reimagine your practice with the power of AI “...this is the only Nigerian book I know of on the topic.” — Ohio Books Ltd
Authored by Ben Ijeoma Adigwe, Esq., ACIArb (UK), LL.M, Dip. in Artificial Intelligence, Director, Delta State Ministry of Justice, Asaba, Nigeria.
Bonus:
Get a FREE eBook titled “How to Use the AI in Legalpedia and Law Pavilion” with every purchase.
How to Order: 📞 Call, Text, or WhatsApp: 08034917063 | 07055285878 📧 Email: benadigwe1@gmail.com 🌐 Website: www.benadigwe.com
Ebook Version: Access directly online at: https://selar.com/prv626
________________________________________________________________________ “Enhance Legal Practice With Authoritative Reports” — Alexander Payne Offers Comprehensive Law Reports, Spanning Over A Century Of Nigerian Jurisprudence
Interested buyers are encouraged to place their orders and enquiries via:
0704 444 4777, 0704 444 4999, 0818 199 9888
Website: www.alexandernigeria.com
