20/02/2026
Why Kaluâs Law Licence Is Under Fire: NYSCâLaw School Overlap Petition Rocks Deputy Speaker
A fresh legal controversy has erupted around the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, following a petition challenging the legality of his enrolment as a legal practitioner and the authenticity of his participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
According to a report by thenigerialawyer.com, a former First Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. John Aikpokpo-Martins, has formally petitioned the Legal Practitionersâ Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), alleging what he described as âfraudulent enrolmentâ on the Roll of Legal Practitioners maintained at the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
At the centre of the petition is an alleged overlap between Kaluâs NYSC service year and his attendance at the Nigerian Law School, Enugu Campus.
The petitioner contends that Kalu was mobilised for NYSC from March 9, 2010 to March 8, 2011, while simultaneously attending the Nigerian Law School between April 23, 2010 and July 1, 2011.
Aikpokpo-Martins argues that such dual participation would contravene Section 2(3) of the NYSC Act, which mandates a continuous one-year national service. He maintains that it is âstatutorily impossibleâ for a corps member to lawfully undertake full-time academic training during the subsistence of the service year.
The petition further references what is described as a strict policy of the Nigerian Law School and the Council of Legal Education prohibiting students from serving in the NYSC during their period of study.
In an affidavit deposed before the LPDC, the petitioner alleges that Kaluâwho reportedly enrolled at the Law School under the name Benjamin Okezie Osisiogu before subsequent changes of nameâmade a formal declaration on April 23, 2010, affirming that he was not and would not engage in employment or serve in the NYSC during his course of study.
However, documentary evidence attached