By Fawaz Balogun

The Education Literary and Debating Society (ELDS), University of Ibadan, has rejected the outcome of the review of the JAWWAR 2026 Semi Finals between the Faculties of Education and Law.

This was disclosed in a statement co-signed by the President, ELDS UI, Mayowa Adekola and General Secretary, Esther Ojo on Sunday, September 27, 2026.

According to the statement, the society noted that they participated in the review process in good faith, stressing that its cooperation with the process should not be interpreted as acceptance of its authority to overturn the initial result.

“Taking part in a review is not the same as agreeing that the review had the power to overturn a final result. Cooperating with a process does not mean accepting whatever it produces,” the statement read.

According to ELDS, the fact that the initial panel and the subsequent review panel reached different conclusions demonstrates the subjective nature of judging and does not, by itself, establish that the latter panel’s decision should supersede the former.

The society argued that the judges originally assigned to the semi final were the officially constituted panel for the round and that their scores therefore constituted the official result.

ELDS also challenged the classification of one of the scores as an “outlier,” citing Article 10, Section 1 of the Constitution, which provides conditions under which a judge’s scoresheet may be excluded if it materially affects the outcome.

ELDS argued that the provision’s requirement that a scoresheet be more than ±10 of the average win or loss margin between opponents given by other judges was not satisfied in the disputed impromptu round.

The society maintained that the disputed score did not satisfy the constitutional requirement for an outlier, particularly in the impromptu round where two judges recorded a tie and the third judge’s score determined the outcome.

“Now when two scores are tied, the third score is reasonably a tiebreaker by definition, not an outlier, no matter how large or small the gap,” ELDS stated.

The society further cited Article 3, Section 5 of the JAWWAR Handbook, which states that “the decisions of the judges are final and cannot be reviewed.”

ELDS argued that the provision should prevent an initial result from being overturned by a subsequent panel unless the governing rules expressly provide the authority and procedure for such a review.

“This is not about doubting the second panel’s fairness or skill. Different judges can honestly see the same debate differently,” ELDS said, adding that the central issue was what gives a second panel the authority to cancel an earlier judgment.

It further warned that if a semi final result could be overturned solely because a later panel disagreed with the initial judges, the same principle would have to apply to all semi final rounds held that day.

“If a result can be thrown out simply because a new panel later disagreed, that logic applies to every semifinal debate that day, not just ours. There is no fair way to apply that standard to one round and not the rest,” the society stated.

ELDS therefore maintained that the original Education versus Law semifinal result remains valid.

The society concluded that if the original result is nevertheless set aside because of the subsequent review, all semifinal rounds from the same day should be subjected to the same review standard.