A man dies two weeks after winning a 41-year battle with YABATECH for the release of his certificate.

Comrade Danlad Sunday Oladele, the founding president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), died just two weeks after winning a battle to have his credential released by YABATECH.

Oladele’s certificate was withheld by the management of YabaTech as a punitive measure for his activism during his time at the college, according to Senator Dino Melaye.

After the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo banned student unionism, which was firmly organised under NUNS during the “Ali Must Go struggle” led by Olusegun Okeowo, Oladele, along with a few others, led the rebirth of the students’ movement from the proscribed National Union of Nigerian Students in 1980.

Oladele is claimed to have led others to reassemble, write a new constitution, and establish NANS in 1980.

His actions, however, “later earned him and most of his colleagues varying consequences such as expulsion, rustication and withholding of their certificates,” according to Melaye.

Oladele fought YABATECH for decades to acquire his certificate, and after the Senate Committee intervened, YABATECH management promised to give him with his certificate at their next convocation, but he died two weeks later.

The deceased’s son, Olalekan, informed reporters that his father was in good spirits and was looking forward to the convocation ceremony, but that he died before it. He went on to say that his father died doing what he loved the most: fighting for the people, and that he had no regrets.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students has sworn to recover its founder president’s credentials.