The Nigeria Police Force has filed cybercrime charges against the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Prof. Joshua Ogunwole, three weeks after staff and students blocked an attempt by officers to arrest him at his official residence. Ogunwole is charged alongside Mufutau Ibrahim and Tajudeen Opoola before the Federal High Court in Lagos. The police allege that the three men unlawfully intercepted the telephone and computer network of a woman, Dr Adeola Kehinde.
The charges were filed by the Inspector-General of Police on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The charge sheet, dated October 2, 2026, was signed by a prosecuting counsel in the Directorate of Legal Services of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC). It states that the alleged offences were committed on August 23, 2026, at the university in Ekiti State.
The prosecution has filed four counts. In the first, the defendants are accused of conspiring “with intent and without authorisation, to unlawfully intercept the transmission of Dr Adeola Kehinde’s computer data and its content.” The second count accuses them of using technical means to carry out that interception from her computer network, while the third alleges that they caused the modification of data held in her computer system “with intent and without lawful authority.”
The fourth count goes beyond cybercrime. It accuses the defendants of acting “in abuse of your office” and committing an “arbitrary act prejudicial to the rights” of the complainant by intercepting her telephone and computer network without lawful authority. That count is brought under Section 104 of the Criminal Code Act, which treats abuse of office as a misdemeanour punishable by two years’ imprisonment, or three years where the act is done for gain.
The first three counts rely on Sections 27(1)(b), 12(1) and 16(1) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015, as amended in 2024. Section 12 deals with the unlawful interception of communications, Section 16 with unauthorised modification of computer data, and Section 27 with conspiracy and aiding the commission of offences under the Act. Each of the substantive offences carries a prison term, a fine or both on conviction.
The charge sheet does not state when the defendants will be arraigned, and none of them has entered a plea. Under Section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution, every person charged with a criminal offence is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The allegations therefore remain claims to be tested in court.
The charges follow a tense standoff at Ogunwole’s official residence in Ado-Ekiti on September 30. The Vice-Chancellor said police officers arrived at about 6.10am and told him they had a warrant, but he refused to leave without being told the basis for the arrest. Academic and non-academic staff, as well as students, gathered at the residence and stopped the officers from taking him away.
Speaking to journalists that day, Ogunwole linked the police action to a petition he said was written by people connected with the university. He named the immediate past Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Abayomi Fasina, and a former Dean of the Faculty of Law, Dr Kehinde Adeola. According to Ogunwole, the dispute arose from an audio recording that leaked and led management to summon those involved before an investigative committee.
Ogunwole said the matter had since gone to court and that he had also petitioned the Inspector-General of Police over what he described as threats to his life. The charge sheet does not say whether the case is linked to that dispute. The complainant’s name also appears in the reverse order to the one the Vice-Chancellor gave, and no official document has confirmed whether both refer to the same person.
The university management has defended its chief executive. Its Director of Public Affairs and Communication, Dr Sunday Saanu, described the police action as mischievous and the petition as spurious, saying Ogunwole had earlier honoured a police invitation before asking his lawyers to represent him. The FUOYE branch chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr Ojo Fagbuagun, said the union had come out to resist what he called attempts to intimidate the Vice-Chancellor.
Ogunwole, a former Vice-Chancellor of Bowen University, Iwo, was appointed to lead FUOYE in late 2025. He succeeded Fasina, whose five-year tenure ran from February 2021 to February 2026. The charges therefore come less than a year into his tenure at one of the federal universities established in 2011.
On the day of the attempted arrest, Ogunwole told supporters his administration would not be distracted. “This is a passing phase,” he said. The next step now lies with the Federal High Court in Lagos, which is yet to fix a date for the defendants to take their pleas.