Prof. Olufemi Peters, Vice-Chancellor of NOUN
By Felix Khanoba
The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has refuted circulating reports suggesting that unauthorized individuals are using the university’s portal to contact students directly, displaying their academic status and demanding payments to clear outstanding carryover courses.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by Ibrahim Sheme, NOUN’s Director of Media and Publicity, the university labeled the claims as entirely false, affirming that its portal remains secure.
The statement reads : “The attention of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has been drawn to a story making the rounds that certain persons have been using the University’s portal to contact students directly, showing them their current status and requesting money to clear their outstanding carryover courses. A screenshot of a chat purporting to be between the University and one of the affected students was shown to the Management.
“The Management wishes to inform all the NOUN students and the general public that the University is unaware of any hacking of its portal and has not asked any of its students to pay money to anybody to clear their outstanding carryover courses. The said request was fake and, we believe, the handiwork of unscrupulous elements desperately wishing to defraud unsuspecting students of the University.
“As far as we know, our portal has not been hacked and we have taken strong measures to further safeguard it.
” NOUN students should ignore the said request. Anybody who received such a request should alert their Study Centre so that necessary action can be taken against the source of the misinformation.”
