A five-year legal battle between the University of Calabar (UNICAL) and eight of its students has concluded with a scathing judgment from the Federal High Court sitting in Calabar. The court declared the institution’s actions in admitting students into unaccredited engineering programs as “fraudulent, reckless, and deceitful.” Presiding Judge, Justice R. O. Dugbo-Oghoghorie, delivered the judgment on Wednesday, March 4, in the suit (FHC/CA/CS/117/21) filed by Idiong Ekpedeme Godwin and seven others—popularly known as the “UNICAL 8”—against the University, its former Vice Chancellor, Prof. Florence Obi, and four others. The plaintiffs dragged the institution to court in 2021 after discovering that the engineering programs they were admitted to study were not accredited by the National Un...