Damning allegations of certificate forgery dominated Tuesday’s session of the Coroner’s Court in Akure as Professor Adolphus Loto, former Acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, detailed how the late Registrar, Mr. Ezekiel Imole Adeniran, lived on forged academic credentials.
Prof. Loto, a Professor of Restorative Dentistry, told the court that the deceased paraded qualifications from institutions that later disowned him.
Most notably, the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, confirmed via official correspondence that Adeniran was never their student and had not been awarded the diploma in Leadership and Management or the MBA degree he claimed.
He further testified that Ajayi Crowther University terminated Adeniran’s appointment for gross misconduct, after he allegedly altered a student’s result from Third Class to Second Class Lower.
Similarly, Elizade University reportedly submitted a damaging character report to UNIMED and the Department of State Services (DSS).
A UNIMED visitation panel report, later adopted by the Ondo State Government as a white paper, also concluded that the deceased was a serial forger and recommended his dismissal.
According to Prof. Loto, his suspicions were first raised after hearing staff whisper about forged certificates.
On retrieving the Registrar’s file, he found glaring anomalies including certificates riddled with grammatical errors, inconsistent fonts, missing serial numbers, and dates that clashed with his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year.
The former VC said he issued an internal query on June 13, 2025, but instead of responding, the Registrar reported him to the Pro-Chancellor.
Despite instructions from the Pro-Chancellor to wait until the Governing Council could sit, Prof. Loto escalated the matter to the police, insisting that forgery was a criminal offence beyond Council’s powers.
Ironically, the Registrar was expected at the State CID on July 17, 2025, to respond to the petition but never appeared. By evening of the same day, news broke that he had collapsed and later died.
The court also heard about a voice note allegedly recorded before his death, in which the Registrar claimed he was forced to drink poison and mentioned names, including Prof. Loto. While acknowledging the voice note, Prof. Loto dismissed the allegation, arguing that the deceased merely saw him as an enemy because of the forgery exposure.
“In my opinion, the weight of the reports against him could have pushed him into despair. But I had no hand in his death. My duty was to uphold the truth,” Prof. Loto maintained, submitting both hard and soft copies of documentary evidence including university correspondences, petitions, and the government white paper to the court.
The Coroner continues to hear testimonies as the inquest probes whether the Registrar’s death was the result of suicide, poisoning, or foul play.
Source: Positive FM.
