UNIVERSITY OF BENIN

The University of Benin is located in Benin City, Edo State of Nigeria with a main campus of 1748 hectares at the Ugbowo area of the City and a smaller though older campus at Ekenhuan Road (24 hectares).  The University was inaugurated on 23rd November, 1970 as the Midwest Institute of Technology with 108 students.  In 1972 it took the present name University of Benin.

FACULTY OF LAW

The Faculty of Law was created in 1981 although it was in fact one of the Faculties the University statute of 1971 empowered the University to establish.  Formal training in the Faculty of Law commenced in October 1981 with a student enrolment of 215 in the full-time 4-year preliminary and 3-year direct entry programme.   This was just 3% of the total University student size of 7,149.

The initial staff strength in 1981 was equally small.  Training commenced with a total of academic staff size of five – Professor Itse Sagay, with a team of one senior lecturer, two lecturers and one assistant lecturer.  The student enrolment increased rapidly to 608 in the 1990/91 session and is now well over 1,600 students.  A new Faculty building was commissioned in November 1991 and remains one of the most modern Law Faculty buildings in the country.

With Bachelors, Masters (LL.M and M.I.L.S) and Doctorate programmes in place, the Faculty of Law ranks among the very best Law Faculties in Nigeria today. The Faculty of Law is soon to commerce Post Graduate Diploma Programme in four different areas of law. In 1984 the eminent Nigerian Lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN instituted in the Faculty an annual lecture series in memory of the former Justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Chukwunweike Idigbe.  Eighteen eminent lawyers and judges have delivered lectures in the series.  The Idigbe Memorial Lecture series has become one of the most prominent events in the legal calendar in Nigeria.