KEY POINTS
- Court blocks JAMB’s 16-year minimum admission age policy.
- JAMB initially mandated age requirement for 2025 admissions.
- Lawsuit seeks protection for younger 2024 exam candidates.
While a motion against the Joint Admissions and Matriculation body (JAMB) is being heard and decided, the Delta State High Court in Warri has issued an injunction prohibiting the body from implementing its recent policy that specifies 16 as the minimum eligible age for university admissions.
Delta court halts JAMB’s age policy decision
Only applicants who turn 16 by August 2025 would be eligible for admission to postsecondary institutions, according to a statement released by JAMB on October 16. The policy is by a recent Ministry of Education directive that sets the minimum age for admission to institutions of higher learning at 18.
However, students applying during the 2024–2025 school year were granted an exception by JAMB. John Aikpokpo-Martins, the former chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association’s Warri branch, sued JAMB because he was unhappy with this approach.
Aikpokpo-Martins filed the complaint under suit number W/311/FHR/2021 on behalf of all applicants who took and completed the JAMB exams in 2024 and were born between September 1 and December 31, 2009; Edwin Clark University and JAMB were named as the first and second respondents, respectively.
According to a certified authentic copy that on Sunday PUNCH was able to secure, Justice Anthony Akpovi granted all of the reliefs that Aikpokpo-Martins had requested in a ruling on Thursday. The applicant requested a court order to stop the respondents from enforcing the JAMB circular titled “Admission of Candidates with Minimum Admissible Age of 16 Years,” which was delivered to Nigerian colleges and signed by Mohammed A. Babaji, on October 16.
Court grants injunction preserving admission for candidates
Additionally, the applicant sought an interim injunction to guarantee Angel Aikpokpo-Martins’ access to all educational resources at the second respondent institution as a student until the hearing of the originating motion, prohibiting the respondents from cancelling her admission or restricting her rights and privileges.
“Reliefs 1 and 2 are hereby granted to preserve and protect the rights of every Nigerian child born between September 1 and December 31, 2009, who took and passed the JAMB exams in 2024, to remain admitted by the first respondent, applying to all Nigerian universities, including the second respondent,” Justice Akpovi wrote in his ruling.
The decision halts JAMB’s circular from October 16 and mandates that the admission list status quo be maintained until the originating motion is heard on October 24. In addition, the court authorised an expedited hearing and substituted service by courier.
