One month after the disappearance of John Oluwanifemi Olajide, a Caleb University student who allegedly went missing on the school premises, his father, Oni Olajide, has lamented the lack of cooperation from the school management.

John Oluwanifemi Olajide, an undergraduate studying Computer Science in the institution, had sent disturbing messages to his elder sister, Stella Oni, on WhatsApp that some suspected cultists wanted him dead.

 

The 21-year-old was said to have warned his sister against disclosing the information to their parents.

It was learned that Oluwanifemi, who finished his examination on Friday, August 13, 2021, requested some money from his father to visit his mother in Ibadan.

 

Olajide said, “My son requested money for transportation on Monday, August 16, 2021, and I sent him N5,000. But I did not see any debit alert since it’s my ATM card he is using. I became worried and called a staff member of the school to check on him and the worker told me that the boy had left for Ibadan to see his mum.

 

“But I found out that he never arrived in Ibadan or signed out of the school. We suspected that the cultists he told his sister about abducted him.

“The reason my child did not go to a state university was because of cultism. I took him to Caleb University after accessing that CCTV was installed everywhere. But I am surprised that after my son went missing, they refused to give us access to the CCTV footage.”

 

He said the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, for further investigation.

 

Reacting, Deputy Director, Public Relations and Marketing, Caleb University, Elvis Otobo, however, accused the family of the student of culpability.

 

She said: “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 sister. We do not know what could be their motive.

 

“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.

 

“For instance, it was Stella, who transferred N4,000 to John, purportedly to facilitate his move to an unknown location outside the campus.

 

“John curiously used the money sent to him by the sister, but according to his father, did not withdraw the N4,000 sent earlier by him to his son.”

Otobo explained that Oluwanifemi had a detailed chat and discussion with Stella on how he should leave the school premises unnoticed.

“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.’”

 

Whatsapp Conversation

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.”

 

The varsity stressed that 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.

 

“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,” the school added.

 

Earlier, in an interview with DEJI LAMBO of PUNCH, Oni Olajide, father of Oluwanifemi Olajide, a 200 level student of Caleb University, Imota, Lagos, who got missing in August, alleges the university is hinding facts concerrning his son’s disappearance

The financial consultant, “He requested money for transportation on Monday, August 16, 2021, and I sent N5,000 to him. But I did not see any debit alert since it’s my ATM card he is using. I became worried and called a staff member of the school to check on him and the worker told me that the boy had left for Ibadan to see his mum.

“But I did my findings and discovered that he never arrived in Ibadan or signed out of the school. We are of the opinion that he was abducted by the cultists he told his sister about. He said the cultists wanted him dead and we saw the messages he sent to her on WhatsApp before his disappearance.

 

“The school has just been trying to put itself in a clean shape despite being 100 per cent culpable about my son’s disappearance.

 

“The reason my child did not go to a state university was because of cultism. I took him to Caleb University after accessing that CCTV was installed everywhere. But I am surprised that after my son went missing, they refused to give us access to the CCTV footage.”

 

The 51-year-old explained that he advised the school authorities to paste Oluwanifemi’s pictures around the school premises, but they refused.

 

He added, “The school said they found my son’s box with another student, one Nathaniel. The police invited Nathaniel on four occasions, but he refused the invitations. I told them to use their influence to get him to honour the invitation, but they did nothing.

 

“If the Chief Security Officer of the school calls Nathaniel, he will pick the phone, but if the CSO hands the phone over to the Imota Divisional Police Officer to speak to Nathaniel, he will cut the call.

 

“My son has been missing for a month; how will he sneak out without carrying his ATM card, phone, money and box found with Nathaniel? What will he use in feeding when he gets out? Nathaniel is claiming that the school is framing him; when the school was asked to bring security guards on duty when my son went missing to write a statement at the station, it brought guards that were not on duty on the day of the incident.”

 

The case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, for further investigation.

Moreover, the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, said Caleb University had been frustrating investigation into the case.

 

He said, “To the best of my knowledge, only the parents have reported to the police, but the school authorities have not written any official complaint to the police, stating the circumstances and the preliminary investigation it conducted so the police can take it up from there.

 

“If that happens, we will have access to the university to ask questions. The school is the one frustrating our investigation because he got missing on the school premises. We have started an investigation, but we have yet to conclude as we have not been granted access to the scene of crime.”

 

Begging, Oluwanifemi Olajide says, “I want the Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Inspector-General of Police, Alkali Usman, to intervene so this case could be investigated thoroughly. The school should submit its CCTV footage, provide the guards that were on duty around the period my son went missing and Nathaniel for interrogation.”