Prof accused of cheating in exam sues Premium Times N7b

A university professor, Benedicta Daudu, has filed a N7 billion defamation suit against PREMIUM TIMES, a Nigerian online newspaper, over its coverage of her examination misconduct scandal at the University of Jos (UNIJOS).

Daudu, currently a lecturer at Taraba State University, claims that the newspaper’s reports have damaged her reputation and ruined her chances of becoming a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).

In 2016, Daudu was caught with “foreign materials” containing answers to exam questions during a master’s examination in Research and Public Policy at UNIJOS.

Following the incident, UNIJOS suspended her from the programme for one academic session and imposed a six-month suspension on her as a staff member.

Daudu served as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption (PACAC).

She resigned from the committee after the scandal surfaced. In September 2023, the newspaper revisited the case, noting that despite the scandal, Daudu was shortlisted for the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) rank in September 2023 but did not make the final list of successful applicants released by the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee (LPPC) in October 2023.

Daudu, in her lawsuit filed at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, claims that the reports from September and October 2023 were defamatory and maliciously harmed her reputation and chances of receiving the SAN honour.

In the suit number marked FCT/HC/CV/2024, filed on 11 March, Daudu claimed that the reports about her cheating scandal were false. According to her, the reports were published to tarnish her good name, integrity, professional standing, and value, and ruin her chances in the final lap of the SAN conferment.

Daudu claimed there “is no scintilla of truth” in PREMIUM TIMES’ “wicked publications,” stating that she was only “wrongfully accused of being in possession of unauthorised academic material during an examination by some staff (members) of the university.”

She claimed she was “not found guilty of the crimes of cheating and examination malpractice or dismissed indefinitely as a lecturer by the University of Jos.”

Daudu also claimed that the reports maliciously portrayed her as unfit to be conferred with the SAN rank, a misfit in the legal profession, and a bad example of a teacher and mentor.

In her lawsuit, Daudu seeks N2 billion in general damages for the alleged harm caused by the reports and an additional N5 billion in exemplary damages due to what she describes as extreme malice.

She also asked the court to compel PREMIUM TIMES to retract the allegedly libellous publications and issue public apologies in five national newspapers, five national television stations, and five national radio stations.