Nigerian student Lola Akinlade has been ordered to leave Canada by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) due to a fraudulent acceptance letter used to obtain her study visa and work permit.
Akinlade, who graduated with a diploma in Social Services from Nova Scotia Community College in 2019, revealed her distressing experience to CBC News.
She was unaware that the acceptance letter, provided by an agent for the University of Regina in 2016, was fake until IRCC contacted her just weeks before her graduation from the new institution.
While receiving her diploma, Akinlade experienced a mix of joy and anxiety upon realising that she had unwittingly relied on a fraudulent document to secure her study permit. “I was devastated. That was the beginning of my trauma,” she said.
In her interview with CBC News, Akinlade pleaded, “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 review my file. I just want this to be resolved.”
The journey began in 2015 when Akinlade was working as a medical sales representative at a pharmaceutical company in Lagos, holding a business administration degree from a Nigerian university. She met a man who claimed to be an immigration consultant and offered to help her become an international student by applying for a master’s degree in business administration.
Akinlade explained that she did not specify a particular university to the agent, only that she wanted to study at a reputable Canadian institution. She provided the agent with her documents, including her passport and university transcripts, along with payment. Months later, he provided her with a study permit for Canada, air tickets, and an acceptance letter from the University of Regina.
“I flew to Canada in late December 2016, expecting to start classes in January 2017. However, I was stopped in Winnipeg en route to Regina when I received a call from the agent, who told me there were no spaces available at the university and that I would have to go on a waitlist,” Akinlade recounted.
Upon arrival in Canada, she began searching for a new school and program independently and stayed with relatives in Winnipeg until she was accepted at Nova Scotia Community College for social services, starting in September 2017. She chose social services because it aligned with her previous work in the medical field.
Akinlade did not contact the University of Regina directly until two years later, when she received a letter from the IRCC informing her that the acceptance letter was fake. “I was sceptical after receiving the IRCC letter, thinking it might be a misunderstanding or something,” she said. “So, I immediately contacted the University of Regina. And that was when I learned the truth.”
CBC News reached out to the agent, Babatunde Isiaq Adegoke, who confirmed providing Akinlade with the acceptance letter but claimed it was supplied by a company called Success Academy Education Consult in Ejigbo, Lagos State. Adegoke stated that he guided Akinlade through the process of applying to enter Canada but denied telling her that she would have to go on a waitlist at the University of Regina.
Due to the fake letter, Akinlade lost her study permit in Canada and was denied both a postgraduate work permit and a temporary resident permit. In March 2023, an IRCC officer wrote to Akinlade, stating that the department believed she knew the document was fake “on the balance of probabilities.”
Akinlade’s husband, Samson, and their eight-year-old son, David, who joined her in Nova Scotia in 2018, have also lost their temporary resident status. Their younger son, born in Canada in 2021, has Canadian citizenship but lacks medical coverage due to his parents’ status.
“We’ve been surviving on our savings, and I don’t know how long we can continue doing that,” Akinlade lamented. “It’s really, really hard,” she added.
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