Nigerian Student Faces Deportation from Canada Over Fake Acceptance Letter

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has asked Nigerian student Lola Akinlade to leave the country over a fake acceptance letter she used to obtain a study visa and work permit.
Akinlade, who graduated with a diploma in Social Services from Nova Scotia Community College in 2019, shared her bittersweet experience with CBC News on Thursday.
According to her, she was unaware that the acceptance letter provided by an agent for the University of Regina in 2016 was fake until she was contacted by the IRCC a few weeks before her graduation from her new institution.
The mother of two noted that while receiving her diploma, she felt both happiness and worry upon realising that she had allegedly relied on a fraudulent document to secure her study permit, adding, “I was devastated. That was the beginning of my trauma.”

In an interview with the Canadian news platform, she said, “When the IRCC contacted me, I requested them to re-examine my case, arguing that I was a victim of a ‘rogue agent’ who supplied me with a fake acceptance letter to the Canadian school. “Please check my file. I just want this problem solved.”

Akinlade said the process of moving to Canada and studying there began in 2015, when she was working as a pharmaceutical sales representative for a pharmaceutical company in Lagos and was completing a business administration degree at a Nigerian university.

She said she met a man who claimed to be an immigration consultant at an office and offered to guide her through the process of applying for a master’s in business administration and becoming an international student.

Akinlade explained that she did not name any specific universities but only said that she wanted to study at a reputable Canadian institution.

She explained that she presented the agent with documents such as her passport and university transcripts and made the payment. A few months later, he received her a study permit to Canada, an airplane ticket, and an acceptance letter from the University of Regina.
“I was scheduled to fly to Canada at the end of December 2016 and start studying in January 2017. However, on my way to Regina, I got a call from an agent who told me that the university had no vacancies and I would have to be put on a waiting list, leaving me stranded in Winnipeg.

After arriving in Canada, she began looking for a new school and major on her own, staying with relatives in Winnipeg until she was accepted into the social work program at Nova Scotia Community College in September 2017.
She said she chose interpersonal services because it better suited her previous work in the medical field. Akinlade said she didn’t contact the University of Regina directly until she received a letter from IRCC two years later informing her that her acceptance letter had been forged.

“After I got the IRCC letter, I was skeptical and thought maybe it was a misunderstanding or something,” she said. “So I contacted the University of Regina right away.

And that’s when I found out the truth,” she added.

When CBC contacted her agent, Babatunde Isiak Adegoke, he confirmed that he had submitted the acceptance letter to Akinlade, but said it was delivered by a company he hired, Success Academy Education Consult, based in Ejigbo, Lagos state. CBC said he exchanged text messages with Adegoke and guided Akinlade through the application process to enter Canada. However, he denied telling Akinlade that she had to be put on the waiting list at the University of Regina.

Akinlade lost her study permit in Canada due to the forged letter, and her application for a graduate work permit and temporary residence permit was rejected.

In March 2023, IRCC officials wrote to Akinlade saying they believed with a “high degree of probability” that the documents were forged.

Her husband, Samson Akinlade, and their 8-year-old Nigerian-born son, David, immigrated to Nova Scotia with her in 2018 but have since lost their temporary residence status. Her second son, born in Canada in 2021, is a Canadian citizen but does not have health insurance due to his parents’ status. “We’re surviving on our savings, but we don’t know how much longer we can last,” she said. “It’s really, really hard,” she added.