A nursing graduate says she was warned that her academic certificates would be withheld unless she secured the removal of a media report detailing alleged misconduct at her institution, a claim that has brought wider attention to a series of unresolved grievances at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology's Open Distance Learning programme.
Thomas Abiodun Olamide made the allegation in an interview with SaharaReporters on Tuesday, stating that the threat came after she and other students had gone public with complaints about administrative failures within the programme. Her response, she said, was unequivocal. "My response remains the same: truth should not be silenced," she said.
The certificate threat is one strand of a broader set of allegations. Olamide told the publication that she completed her final examinations in January 2025 alongside colleagues, but that her name and those of several others have not appeared on the official graduating list in the more than twelve months since. Attempts to seek clarity, she said, had been consistently ignored. "Our questions have been met with silence, and our future has been placed on hold without explanation," she said.
She also alleged that certain staff members, working alongside some class executives, subjected students to repeated financial extortion, and that those who raised objections faced intimidation. When some students reported the matter to anti graft agencies in January, she claimed the response from within the institution was not accountability but threats.
Olamide further alleged that she was removed from her class communication platform without explanation or prior notice, and that a class representative later confirmed the action had been taken on the instruction of the Head of Department.
The situation has also involved physical danger. Olamide said the institution's requirement that students make physical visits to the Ogbomoso campus to resolve administrative matters has exposed them to serious travel risks. She alleged that one journey from Delta State ended in a road accident. A separate incident in February, she said, was far worse, claiming eight lives, including six nurses and a pregnant colleague close to delivery. She alleged that the institution took more than 72 hours to issue any official statement in response.
She called on the Oyo State Government, the Federal Ministry of Education and civil society organisations to investigate the matter with urgency.
LAUTECH's management had not issued a response to the allegations at the time of this report. Whether it does so, and what that response contains, may determine how far this case travels beyond the pages of a single media report.
