Let youths live their age, court counsels private varsities

A High Court sitting in Ota, Ogun State, on Wednesday, held that private universities with strict moral rules and regulations should allow the students to live their age and generation.
Justice Mobolaji Ojo took the position while adjourning for judgment in a suit brought by an expelled student of Covenant University, Longji Felix, challenging his expulsion by the institution over alleged possession of pornographic materials and secular music in his laptop.
The presiding judge fixed March 23 for judgment, after taking submission from counsel for parties in the suit.
The plaintiff, a part-four student of Communication Technology, was reportedly expelled on November 23, 2012, following a night raid by the Student Affairs’ Unit of the institution, leading to his compelled appearance before the school’s disciplinary panel which recommended his expulsion.
Making a general comment on the suit before the adjournment, Ojo said “a youth must live like a youth and an adolescent must live like an adolescent,” adding that “if all of the traits of a youth are not allowed to be exhibited at the right time, it would be done at the wrong time.”
The judge also recollected an incident when planning to visit his niece at Bowen University, Iwo, disclosing that “the young lady told me that unless I posed like her biological father, I would be denied entry into the school.”
Ojo said he eventually shunned the invitation, because he was not ready to lie his way to achieve his aim.
In his submission, counsel for the plaintiff, Segun Fatoki, argued that the university did not follow the rule of natural justice in disciplining the student.