Covenant University Under Fire Over Death Of Sacked Lecturer ‘Denied Terminal Benefits’

Covenant Varsity gate

Covenant University is facing public scrutiny following the death of Professor Joseph Olugbuyiro, a former staff member whose appointment was allegedly terminated in 2024, without the payment of his terminal benefits.

A close colleague, Samuel Tuesday Owoeye, broke the news in an emotional post on social media, accusing the university of subjecting him and others to untold hardship by withholding their entitlements for over eight months.

“My brother and colleague, you couldn’t survive the shock,” Owoeye wrote.

He added that “Covenant University terminated our appointment in September 2024 and gave us three weeks to vacate our residence… not because we violated any regulations, but to bring down the wage bill.”

He further alleged that while the sack was painful but tolerable, the greater injustice was the university’s prolonged refusal to settle their benefits.

“As I make this post, they are still devising how to cut, cut, cut… It is now over eight months and the organization we spent almost half of our lifetime to serve doesn’t care if we go and die. Of course, you have gone and now you have died untimely,” he lamented.

Owoeye recalled their last conversation on May 4, 2025, where both men discussed the harsh economic realities facing them.

Adding a spiritual note, he quoted Jeremiah 17:9 to describe the betrayal they felt: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it.”

Owoeye expressed fear that even in death, his colleague might still be shortchanged.

“I am sure Covenant University will now call your next of kin and pay him/her what they like and not what you are entitled to receive. God will judge the wicked,” he concluded.