Students of architecture in polytechnics and graduates with the Higher National Diploma, have urged the Architect Registration Council of Nigeria to accord them professional recognition for career progression.
The students lamented that the ARCON allegedly discriminated against their polytechnic certificates and gave the higher recognition to holders of Bachelor degrees in the profession.
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The aggrieved architects, who graduated from polytechnics had earlier taken the professional body to the Federal High Court sitting in Akure, Ondo State and challenged the recognition given to their counterparts with university background.
Speaking on the development, one of the affected students Oluwaseun Aladesanmi, who is a student of the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo State, urged ARCON to act like a good father to all professionals by recognising graduates of polytechnics, and giving them the same leverage as their university counterparts.
Aladesanmi said ARCON should accommodate polytechnic graduates so that they could rise to a competent level like their counterpart.
In his own view, Mr Kayode Omotosho, a graduate of architecture at the polytechnic, said he was a sad man because those who graduated from the university were being placed on him due to the decision of ARCON not to recognise polytechnic certificates.
Omotosho, who noted that he graduated 16 years ago, said that he and some others colleagues of his, had to go to court for the perceived injustice meted out to them by the body.
He said, “ This struggle is not only for us who have already graduated, but also for the future generation of polytechnic graduates who never know what they would face when they begin to practise architecture .”
After the court proceeding on Monday, the counsel to the aggrieved polytechnic graduates, had filed an application for interlocutory injunction.
The counsel, Mr Henry Nnabugwu, explained that the application for interlocutory injunction was to stop ARCON from conducting exams for university graduates alone, pending the outcome of the court case.
The counsel to the ARCON, Mr. Vincent Okafor said the plaintiff served him with bundle of documents, in which there was an interlocutory injunction, which by the rules of the court, must be given time to respond.
The judge, Justice Abdul Dogo however adjourned the case till March 4, 2019 for further hearing.
