Following the public criticism that followed the disparity in the admission cut-off marks for unity school applicants in the southern parts of the country and that of the northern region, a federal high court has ordered a stop to the segregation.

Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos ruled that it is unconstitutional for different states in the country to have varying cutoff marks for the same school. The court ordered the Nigerian Government to apply a uniform cut-off mark to all candidates seeking admission into Federal Government Colleges, irrespective of their states of origin.

A human rights lawyer and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, had dragged the Federal Government and the Minister of Education before the court, challenging the prescribed different cut-off marks for different states, based on candidates’ gender and their states of origin.

Currently, admission cutoff marks for candidates in the southeast are set as high as 134 while in some northern states candidates only have to score as low as 2 marks to gain admission. The cut-off is out of a total of 300 marks.