Kalu Certificate Probe: Legal Council Silent After Query Deadline

The Council of Legal Education has queried the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, over a petition seeking the withdrawal and cancellation of his law school certificate.

The Secretary to the Council and Director of Administration, Ms. Aderonke O. Osho, confirmed to THE WHISTLER that the council wrote to Kalu but said the matter would be handled privately.

“We wrote a letter to him. We did not copy any media agency or the press,” Osho told THE WHISTLER.

“We’ll be dealing with him, and I can confirm that we wrote the letter, but we’ll only deal with him.”

Asked whether Kalu had responded after the query deadline elapsed, Osho said: “Right now, I’m not in a position to say whether he has responded or not.”

The council, in a letter dated April 21, 2026 and signed by Osho, gave Kalu seven days to “submit a written response to the petition” to enable its committee probing the matter carry out its assignment.

The letter reads, “The Council of Legal Education (Council) is in receipt of a petition dated 16th March, 2026 requesting the withdrawal and cancellation of your Qualifying Certificate No. 051144. A copy of the petition is attached for your attention.

“The Council at its sitting on Friday, 17th April 2026, constituted a three member adhoc Committee to investigate the said petition.

“In view of the foregoing, the Committee has requested that you submit a written response to the petition within seven (7) days from the date hereof, to enable the Committee to expeditiously carry out its assignment. The Committee may also require your personal appearance at any stage of its work, if deemed necessary.”

A coalition of civil society organisations, led by the Civil Society Groups of Good Governance (CSGGG), had demanded investigation into Kalu’s National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) certificates over alleged inconsistencies in the dates on the certificates.

In March, the CSGGG held a press briefing in Abuja where it asked Kalu to step aside pending investigations into alleged perjury, false representation, and contradictions between his NYSC discharge certificate and Nigerian Bar certificate.

The coalition questioned how Kalu, who was admitted to the Nigerian Law School under the name Benjamin Okezie Osisiogu, could have obtained his NYSC and Call to Bar certificates within one year.

Under Law School rules, students are required to declare they are not engaged in employment or participating in the NYSC during their course of study. Kalu was said to have declared this on April 23, 2010.

The group said this meant “either he (Kalu) did not participate fully in the NYSC Service Year, or he never attended the Nigerian Law School to qualify him to be enrolled into the Bar.”