University speaks on disappearance of student

Caleb University, Imota, Lagos State has explained the circumstances that led to the disappearance of one of its students, Oluwanifemi Olajide.

The explanation was offered by the Deputy Director, Public Relations and Marketing, Dr. Elvis Otobo, on Wednesday.

Otobo in a statement said Olajide and his sister, Stella, planned the disappearance of the student.

He said Oluwanifemi, a student of Computer Science at the institution, sent disturbing messages to his sister on WhatsApp, suggesting that cultists were after his life.

Oni said the 21-year-old disappeared shortly afterwards.

The statement said: “WhatsApp records show that John (Oluwanifemi) and Stella communicated between 15th and 17th August 2021 – a period that John was supposed to be ‘missing’.

“The university is gravely concerned over the fact that Stella never reported the issue of the alleged cultism and/or threat to John’s life to the school management, parents or the police.

“According to our internal investigation and information obtained from WhatsApp chats between the siblings, we are of the strong conviction that this was a premeditated action, deliberately planned by John and his sister. We do not know what could be their motive.

“He apparently complied with this instruction, which also specifically asked him to leave his luggage and phone behind, while finding his way out of the campus. We got this information from WhatsApp messages obtained from Stella’s phone. It was also this chat that first mentioned the issue of ‘cult.’”

On the allegation that the school refused to paste the victim’s photo on the campus, Otobo said: “The university management pasted John’s picture in various strategic locations within the campus to help in getting relevant information. It was the university that gave an electronic copy of John’s photograph to his father.

“The management reported the matter promptly at the Imota Divisional Police Station with the sole objective of getting to the root of this matter, and bringing our student back promptly and safely.”

Otobo said a search team was also deployed to look for the student, adding that their efforts proved abortive, as he could not be found in the hostel or on campus.

He said: “The Divisional Police Officer personally visited the university on August 22, for preliminary investigation. This led to another visit on August 23 with a team of police officers, led by the Divisional Police Officer.

“On August 25, Area N invited officials of the school and they responded swiftly to the invitation. The case was later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department at Yaba, where both parties were invited and interrogated on August 27, 2021, and requested to come back on August 30. On August 30, the Caleb University team was present, but John’s sister, Stella, and her parents did not show up.”