The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has reacted 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.
The institution’s Director of Media and Publicity, Malam Ibrahim Sheme, said in a press release he issued on Wednesday that a screenshot of a chat purporting to be between the university and one of the affected students was shown to the Management.
He said: “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.”
Sheme described the request as fake, adding that the university believed it was “the handiwork of unscrupulous elements desperately wishing to defraud unsuspecting students of the University.”
The director added: “As far as we know, our portal has not been hacked and we have taken strong measures to further safeguard it.”
He urged NOUN students to “ignore the said request,” saying, “Anybody who received such a request should alert their Study Centre so that necessary action can be taken against the source of the misinformation.”
