How Certificate Forgery Led to the Arrest of Provost, Admission Officer, 15 Students in Ibadan

What began as a routine application process at the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) office in Ibadan has exploded into a full-blown scandal, implicating the leadership of Mufutau Lanihun College of Education, Ibadan, in an alleged certificate forgery scheme.

The Oyo State Police Command on Tuesday, July 2, 2025, confirmed the arrest of 15 students of the College over their alleged possession of forged Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) statements of results. These forged documents were reportedly being used to process JAMB regularisation for direct entry into Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), with which the College is affiliated for degree programmes in Education.

The trail of the forgery led directly to the doorstep of the institution’s top officials. Following the students’ arrest at the JAMB office—after the fake certificates were flagged by a vigilant staff member—investigators interrogated the suspects, who confessed that the statements of results had been issued by the College’s own management. This revelation triggered the immediate arrest of the College’s Provost, Professor Lawal Musliudeen Ayodele, and the Admission Officer, Mr. Abiodun Gbolade, both of whom are now in custody pending further investigation.

According to sources close to the investigation, the students involved are mostly first and second-year undergraduates, who had been issued falsified NCE certificates to gain admission into AAUA via direct entry. Police operatives, acting on the complaint from JAMB, swiftly moved to the scene to apprehend the students and retrieve the forged documents.

The case has since attracted the attention of the JAMB Registrar, Professor Ishaq Oloyede, who is reportedly monitoring the situation closely amid growing concerns over certificate fraud in Nigeria’s tertiary education system.

Confirming the development, the spokesperson of the Oyo State Police Command, CSP Adewale Osifeso, stated that investigation is ongoing and that more arrests may follow if other officials are found complicit in the forgery network.

This incident throws yet another spotlight on the worrying state of academic integrity in Nigeria’s educational institutions, and raises questions about the level of oversight and accountability in certificate issuance, especially among affiliate colleges. As the investigation deepens, stakeholders in the education sector are calling for a comprehensive audit of degree-affiliated institutions to forestall future abuses of the system.