Exam malpractice: Court acquits Hafsat Mangal

The Federal Hight Court sitting in Kano, presided over by Justice Fatun Riman has ordered Bayero University Kano to consider Hafsat Dahiru Mangal as a bonifide undergraduate student pursuing Bachelors of Art degree programme in English Language at the university.
The court also held that the expulsion of from the university for the alleged offence of examination malpractice was null and void.
It could be recalled that the daughter of the Katsina born business mogul, who is a level 3 student of English Department, was expelled from the university on January 14, 2011 for the alleged offence of examination malpractice.

Mangal testified in person as a principal witness, while the fefendants through their counsel Barrister Francis Ithunokia called two witnesses.
In her evidence-in-chief, the plaintiff denied the allegation of examination malpractice leveled against her by the defendants, as well as the handwriting in the booklet confiscated, which she said was not her handwriting and also denied being the person caught with the booklet.
Also in his testimony for the defendants, one Sunusi Gaya, a lecturer in the Faculty of Agriculture, was alleged to have seen the plaintiff along with other security personnel with the booklet and confiscated the booklet.

Justice Fatun Riman, in view of the evidence and authorities adduced by both parties during the proceeding, he held that Hafsat Dahiru Mangal was not accorded fair hearing before she was expelled from the university. Riman added that there was a lacuna in the proceeding, which infringed the fundamental right of the plaintiff as guaranteed in the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said, “The plaintiff has discharged the task placed on her to prove her case within the balance of probability in a civil case.” He consequently entered judgment in her favour.

The court also ordered the university and other defendants in the suit to re-instate Hafsat Dahiru Mangal to continue with her studies as an undergraduate student of English in the Faculty of Art and Islamic Studies, without any loss of rights and privileges including right to participate fully in normal academic and extra-curricular activities that would eventually led to her successful completion of her Bachelor of Arts degree.