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, shared her distressing experience with CBC News. She discovered that the acceptance letter, provided by an agent for the University of Regina in 2016, was fake only when IRCC contacted her weeks before her graduation.
Receiving her diploma brought mixed emotions for Akinlade, as she realized she had unknowingly relied on a fraudulent document to secure her study permit. “I was devastated. That was the beginning of my trauma,” she recounted.
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 want this to be resolved.”
Akinlade’s journey began in 2015 when she worked as a medical sales representative at a pharmaceutical company in Lagos, holding a business administration degree from a Nigerian university. She met a man claiming to be an immigration consultant who 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; she only wanted to study at a reputable Canadian institution. She provided the agent with her documents, including her passport, university transcripts, and payment.
