The family of 19-year-old Fadlullah Agboluaje are calling for an investigation into the student’s sudden death in Ukraine few days after leaving Nigeria.

Fadlullah Agboluaje died in Ukraine after allegedly experiencing extreme cold which led to his untimely death.

Rofeeha Agboluaje, the late boy’s older sister, had raised the alarm on social media that her family was informed that her brother was found dead in his room hours after he arrived at the Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine.

The Story

”How did my healthy brother die in Ukraine overnight?

Lviv Polytechnic National University needs to tell us how my healthy 19-year-old brother, Fadlullah Adedayo Adebayo Agboluaje died.

My mum was with him at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Nigeria before he traveled from Nigeria on Saturday, January 8, 2022, and landed in Ukraine on Sunday 9th January 2022.

He was picked up from the airport by a Lviv Polytechnic National University representative to the school’s accommodation facility ( please provide the name) the same day, January 9, 2022. On getting to the room assigned to him, he wasn’t happy with the way it looked and my mum told him to request a change of room.

So he went to the front desk of the accommodation facility to report to the personnel on duty but unfortunately, the person didn’t understand English so he ended up reaching out to the liaison officer, the undersigned agent on the letter the school sent before he left for Ukraine.

This man asked my brother to see him in the morning the following day by 7 am.

My mum chatted with my brother up until 11(p.m), Nigeria time on Sunday/Monday 10th, 2022.

Then on Monday, we didn’t hear from my brother, all his calls were going through, messages were dropping but no responses at all.

My mum began to panic and reached out to different people for help as at afternoon time after we got no response all morning. Then it struck her that she could copy the number of the liaison officer on the letter. So, she reached out to him also.

Later that afternoon, he stopped responding to calls, keeping us in the dark.

He ended up picking up his calls later that evening and then gave a student in that accommodation facility the phone to break the news that my brother was found dead on the floor of his room.

It was a big shock.

My brother left Nigeria very healthy. He took a COVID-19 test on the 7th of January and tested negative. He got the full COVID-19 vaccination, took his yellow fever vaccine, ran a complete health check at our family hospital and the results came out fine.

After we got the news, we began to ask this liaison officer to send us his picture if truly he’s dead. He didn’t do so until early evening on Tuesday 11th, 2022. I couldn’t look at the picture until Wednesday 12th, 2022 because I just couldn’t look at my younger brother dead.

As an older one, you always want to fend for your younger siblings. It hurt too much to look at the picture but my mind needed to have a grasp of the evidence. I looked at the picture on my uncle’s phone and my brother looked asleep in the blue shirt he wore from Nigeria as seen in the picture, fully buttoned up and in a blue thick furred coat.

They haven’t sent us another picture of my brother in his dead state until now.”

Reacting in a series of tweets shared by Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) on Tuesday, 1st February, 2022, the Chairman/CEO Abike Dabiri-Erewa paid a condolence visit to the family of Agboluaje.

It tweeted, “Recall: FADLULLAH AGBOLUAJE arrived in Ukraine on January 8 and was reported dead.

“A day after he was said to have died from extreme cold in his hostel room in Ukraine, according to the autopsy done on his body in Ukraine.

“The visit was filled with so many emotions and grieves from the Agboluaje’s family who blamed the school for negligence on the part of the liaison officer.

“Dabiri-Erewa, who was filled with compassion for the Agboluaje family, informed the family of the immediate intervention of the Nigerian envoy in Ukraine, Ambassador Fatai Alege, who, with the consent of the father, demanded an autopsy.”

Questions to Answer

The family of Fadlullah Adedayo Adebayo Agboluaje is asking:

1. They said they’ve done an autopsy, where’s the official report?

2. Why has Lviv Polytechnic National University not contacted or reached out to us? Is my brother not their responsibility? He was already in the school’s territory!

3. We want Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its Embassy in Ukraine, and the Ukraine Embassy to tell the family what has happened in this matter.

4. What was done to justify their duty of care for the student?

5. We need a statement from the school about what happened to my brother? We need answers, we’re being kept in the dark.

We Need Justice For Fadlullah Agboluaje.

The family have started a campaign on Change.org.