Eight months after Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State said the approval for a law program at Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) was because he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC), the university has finally made it to the Council of Legal Education’s list. This list shows institutions approved to admit students into the Bachelor of Law (LL.B.) program.
The Council of Legal Education, in a notice dated 14 August 2026 and signed by its Secretary and Director of Administration, Aderonke Osho, listed 122 universities that can admit students into the LL.B. program in Nigeria.
AKSU, located in Ikot Akpaden, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, is now one of the institutions on this latest list.
This is significant because the university had been left out of earlier lists published by the Council. This happened even though the National Universities Commission (NUC) had approved the law program at AKSU.
This new development brings back attention to Mr Eno’s claim from November 2025. He said the approval for the university's law faculty was a reward for Akwa Ibom because of his switch to the APC.
Mr Eno made this claim at a meeting with 783 of his political appointees in Uyo on 19 November 2025, shortly after he joined the APC.
Parts of the meeting were shared on Facebook by Anietie Usen, a journalist and media aide to the governor.
In his speech, Mr Eno told the crowd that his new ties with the APC-led federal government helped Akwa Ibom secure various projects. These included the federal Renewed Hope housing estate and the approval for the law faculty at AKSU.
“What just happened takes a lot of relationship building and relationship management to get those things into our state,” Mr Usen quoted the governor as saying about the projects.
Mr Eno also argued that staying in an opposition party would limit what the state could achieve. He said, “I say this to say that we cannot continue to sit down in an opposition political party because there are too many things we cannot do for ourselves. Too many things.”
PREMIUM TIMES later looked into this claim and found that the NUC's approval for AKSU’s law program was based on an academic evaluation, not political ties.
Documents from AKSU show that the NUC approval was given in a letter dated 10 November 2025, just nine days before Mr Eno’s meeting with his aides.
The university stated that the approval followed a resource verification exercise that allowed AKSU to start a full-time LL.B. program from the 2025/2026 academic session.
The NUC is the federal body that approves academic programs in Nigeria's universities. Franca Chukwuonwo, the spokesperson for the commission, told PREMIUM TIMES in December that universities get approval when they meet the required standards.
“Why won’t they be given accreditation if they fulfil the requirements?” she asked.
When asked if political connections could affect the approval process, she replied, “Sorry, there is nothing like that. This has nothing to do with the presidency. When once you fulfil the requirements, they will give you accreditation.”
While the NUC had given AKSU the green light for the law program, this did not automatically allow the university’s law students to enter the Nigerian Law School.
The Council of Legal Education is in charge of legal education and decides which universities can admit students into the LL.B. program for professional qualification.
In March 2026, the Council published a list of 114 universities permitted to admit students for law. But AKSU was not on that list.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in April that this omission was especially noticeable because the university had already taken in students for its law program for the 2025/2026 academic session.
The Council warned that students admitted into law programs by universities without its approval would not qualify for the Nigerian Law School.
The omission continued in June when the Council released another list with 117 approved universities, but AKSU was again missing.
PREMIUM TIMES raised concerns about the status of students already admitted into the university’s law program. This raised more questions about Mr Eno’s earlier claim that his political move had secured the approval.
Now, the situation has changed. The Council’s latest notice, dated 14 August 2026, lists 122 universities allowed to admit students into the LL.B. program.
AKSU is now among the recognized institutions. With this latest list, three universities in Akwa Ibom State can now offer law programs: the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State University, and Topfaith University, Mkpatak.
This means AKSU has gone from being repeatedly left off the Council’s approved lists to joining the 122 universities officially allowed to admit law students.
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