After it was found that Lola Akinlade, a Nigerian lady, had obtained a study and work permit by using a forged university acceptance letter, she and her family are facing deportation from Canada.
2019 Nova Scotia Community College alumna Lola told CBS News she didn’t know the letter an agent in Lagos gave her for the University of Regina in 2016 was fake.
The Nigerian foreign student received a letter from Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) a few weeks prior to graduation.
It claimed that one of the documents she had used to enter Canada the previous year was forged, which prompted her to provide an explanation.
Akinlade claimed she was unaware of the charge until the IRCC informed her. She claimed that, because of the problem, she and her family are without immigration status in Canada and will have minimal support if they move back to Nigeria.
Akinlade claimed she was devastated to learn that she had obtained her study permission by using forged paper.
“That was the beginning of my trauma.”
Based on information provided to CBC by the IRCC and firsthand accounts from professionals in the area, it is likely that many more overseas students studying in Canada may be in a similar predicament.
Akinlade’s situation appears to be far from unusual, as the IRCC has discovered over 9,000 instances of fraudulent letters since launching a new procedure to review acceptance letters for overseas students in December 2023.
Akinlade claims she was duped by a “rogue agent” who sent her a forged admission letter to a Canadian university and is requesting that the IRCC reevaluate her case.
In 2015, Akinlade began considering studying in Canada. She has a business administration degree from a Nigerian institution and was employed as a medical sales representative for a pharmaceutical company in Lagos.
She claimed to have met a man at an office outside of Lagos who claimed to be an immigration expert and to have offered to help her apply for a master’s degree in business administration and assist her in the process of becoming an international student.
Akinlade claimed that she simply told the agent that she wished to attend a reputable Canadian university rather than bringing up any specific university.
Akinlade claimed that she paid the agency and gave him paperwork, including her passport and papers from her university. A few months later, he gave her airline tickets, a letter of admittance to the University of Regina, and study permission to enter Canada.
Akinlade thought she would begin lessons in January 2017 when she took a flight to Canada in late December 2016.
She did, however, claim that during her stopover in Winnipeg on the way to Regina, she received a call from the agent informing her that there were no openings at the institution and that she would need to join a waitlist.
Akinlade moved temporarily with relatives in Winnipeg while she started looking for a new programme and school on her own. Eventually, she was admitted to the Nova Scotia Community College’s social services programme, and she started classes there in September 2017.
She claimed that the decision to move to social services was made because it more closely matched the work she had previously done in the medical industry.
Akinlade claimed that until she received a letter from the IRCC informing her that the acceptance letter was fraudulent two years later, she had never made direct contact with the University of Regina.
“I was kind of sceptical [after getting the IRCC letter] because I thought that wasn’t real, like a miscommunication or something,” she said. “So immediately I contacted [the] University of Regina.
“And that was when I learnt the truth.”
Akinlade said since arriving in Canada, she’s had little contact with the agent in Nigeria.
However, Akinlade said that she used Babatunde Isiaq Adegoke, the agent she hired to coordinate her application for a study permit and admission to a Canadian university, to text message her.
Adegoke told CBC that he helped Akinlade submit an application for entry into Canada.
He acknowledged that he had given Akinlade the University of Regina acceptance letter. However, he claimed that the letter came from Success Academy Education Consult, a business he employed. He claimed that it was formerly in the city of Ejigbo but has since relocated to an unidentified place.
He denied informing Akinlade she would have to put herself on the University of Regina waitlist and claimed he was shocked to discover the acceptance letter was a hoax.
Adegoke informed CBC that he had not worked with Success Academy Education Consult since 2018 and that he was no longer providing study permit services. He refused to give further details during a video chat.
CBC was unable to locate a company that fit Adegoke’s requirements. When CBC called and emailed companies with similar names, none of the proprietors acknowledged receiving Lola Akinlade’s letter.
Because of the fictitious letter, Akinlade’s study permit was revoked in Canada, and her applications for a temporary residency permit and a post-graduate employment permit were turned down.
In a letter dated March 20, 2023, an IRCC officer informed her that, “as per balance of probabilities,” the department feels she knew the paper was fraudulent.
After joining her in Nova Scotia in 2018, her husband Samson Akinlade and son David, who was born in Nigeria, ceased to be considered temporary residents.
Despite having Canadian citizenship, their youngest son was born in 2021 and lacks health insurance due to his parents’ immigration status.
She and her husband worked in Nova Scotia as caregivers before losing their immigration status.
“We already invested our lives in Canada, so there is nothing to go back to fall on [in Nigeria],” she said
Akinlade’s lawyer, Amanat Sandhu, said the family is filing a humanitarian application to stay.
Sandhu said it’s common for her downtown Toronto firm to see what she describes as “rogue agents” supplying immigrants with bad information.
“Overall, there’s a lot of people that get into this sticky situation where they trust an agent and then the agent doesn’t perform the way that they’re supposed to,” she said.
