A federal high court in Port Harcourt on Thursday reserved judgement in the suit brought by 1,227 final year students of the University of Port Harcourt against the management of the institution over non-issuance of degree certificates.
The affected final year students are praying the court to compel the management of UNIPORT to award them degree certificates, mobilize them for National Youth Service and tender unreserved apologies to them in national newspapers to assuage the trauma they went through.
Counsel to the affected final year students, Kingdom Chukwuezie said: “We are ready for judgment and we believe justice will be in favour of my clients.”
On his part, counsel to the defendants, Emeka Njioku told the court that the action of his clients against the affected final year students over their delay in school fees payment was in compliance with the policies of the institution and therefore asked the court to dismiss the suit.
The defendants in the suit are; the University of Port Harcourt, the Vice Chancellor of UNIPORT, the Registrar of UNIPORT, the Senate of UNIPORT and the UNIPORT Governing Council.
It would be recalled that the affected final year students lost their 2015/2016 academic session due to their inability to pay their final year school fees before August 1st, 2016.