Mr Adebayo believed that the scores he was awarded in about 7 courses were not his own
By Chinedu Orji-Obasi
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Published on June 6, 2026
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3 min read
The summary of this case was that the appellant (Adebayo) graduated from department of Mechanical Engineering of the respondent (FUTA) in 2007, is graduating CGPA falls within Second Class Lower Division.
- Case: Mr Adebayo Afolabi Victor vs. Federal University of Technology, FUTA, Akure & ANOR (2025)
- Suit No: LPELR-83156(SC)
- Court: The Supreme Court Of Nigeria
- Date: Friday, December 12, 2025
Mr Adebayo believed that the scores he was awarded in about 7 courses were not his own and he applied to the University for remarking of the scripts in those courses by independent assessors, that he believes that if those scripts are so remarked he will earn a Second Class Upper Division.
Instead of granting his request, FUTA withheld his certificate and transcript making him to miss a potential admission offer abroad.
After much back and forth, he instituted this action at the High Court in 2011. Initially a preliminary objection that the suit was statute barred was raised and upheld by the High Court leading to the striking out of the suit. That decision was upturned on appeal and the matter sent back to the High Court for trial.
At the end, the High Court held that FUTA should remark those scripts and awarded damages of 500,000 Naira and cost of litigation of 250,000 in favour of Mr Adebayo. Instead of obeying that order, FUTA went on appeal to the Court of Appeal. The judgement of the High Court was upheld including the sum awarded in damages.
FUTA further appealed to the Supreme Court but at a point they complied with the order to remark those scripts and paid the total sum of 750,000 to Mr Adebayo. So the Supreme Court was left with only Mr Adebayo’s cross appeal challenging the damages awarded by the courts below as being ridiculously low.
The Supreme Court agreed with him and reversed the order. The sum of 18 Million Naira damages was awarded in his favour and 2 Million Naira as cost of litigation was also awarded in his favour and against the University.
This is a case of determination, perseverance and resilience that paid off after 15 years of painful litigation.
All FUTA needed to do to avoid this lengthy process was to appoint independent assessors, remark the student’s scripts and if truly he was victimised or deliberately marked down, award him his rightful grade.
As much as I don’t expect lecturers and tertiary institutions to be dashing out unmerited scores just to make students happy, I equally expect a fair, transparent assessment of students, and where any student feels agitated and makes the necessary application for remark, an unbiased examiner that knows the student was fairly assessed within the marking scheme, will gladly submit the scripts for remark.
