A postgraduate student of Arabic at the University of Ilorin, AbdulHafeez Adedimeji, died on Saturday, the day he was to receive his doctorate at a convocation. Sources told Punch correspondent that another doctoral graduand died shortly before the ceremony.

Soon after the Dean, Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, Prof. Badmas Yusuf, informed attendants of the graduands’ demise, a gloomy atmosphere enveloped the lively UNILORIN auditorium where the 32nd graduation activities were being held..

Adedimeji, who until his death was a lecturer at the Fountain University, Osogbo, Osun State, was among 166 receiving doctoral degrees at the convocation.

He was said to have arrived in Ilorin for the convocation not long before his death.