• Prayer Centre’s Loudspeakers Disrupt Study, Sleep, Health —VC

Noise should be the furthest concern within a peaceful academic environment, yet for Augustine University, Epe, it has become an urgent crisis. Night after night, and sometimes during the day, loudspeakers from Ori Oke Iyanu’s prayer sessions reverberate across the campus and adjoining neighbourhood, undermining both rest and study.

The university management claimed that efforts to engage the prayer ground’s leadership have been rebuffed, and formal complaints, including an unsuccessful Senate-mandated delegation visit and an ignored letter to the prayer ground’s overseer—have failed to yield relief.

Yet, the institution said the activities of the worship centre flagrantly conflicts with Lagos State’s environmental protections, which mandate permissible noise levels and regulate the use of amplified sound in religious settings to curb noise pollution.

The Vice Chancellor of the university, Rev. Fr. Professor Anthony Alaba Akinwale, in a complaint letter, said for quite sometimes, indeed, every night of the week that has just ended, noise from prayer sessions at Ori Oke Iyanu situated on Igbo Nla Road, Ilara-Epe, Lagos State, within the vicinity of Augustine University, has been a source of disturbance in the neighbourhood of Igbo Nla Road in general, and on the campus of the University in particular.

“Students and members of staff have inundated University Management with complaints. As a matter of fact, the Director of Operations of the University, unable to sleep the night of Wednesday, December 3, 2025, early in the morning of Thursday, December 4, had to be rushed to the hospital because his blood pressure was too high. He is still on admission.

“On June 27, 2025, a delegation mandated by Senate of Augustine University was at Ori Oke Iyanu to lodge a complaint that the use of loudspeakers during daytime and nighttime prayer sessions at Ori Oke disturbs the much-needed quiet environment on the University campus. This hinders the university from attaining its objectives as an academic community. Since our complaint went unheeded, on October 9, 2025, I wrote a letter to the General Overseer of Ori Oke Iyanu on this matter. He refused to receive the letter.

“Use of loudspeakers during daytime prayer sessions disturbs our students while they are at lectures. Use of loudspeakers during night vigils deprives our staff and students of their well-deserved night rest. The issue, for the sake of clarity, is noise pollution, which is a health hazard. Use of loudspeakers during your daytime and nighttime prayer sessions constitutes a flagrant violation of Lagos State Environmental Laws.

“The issue is compounded by the fact that the prayer ground is using loudspeakers within the vicinity of a university campus.” Akinwale appealed to the Lagos State government and the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) to compel Ori Oke Iyanu to obey laws of Lagos State forbidding noise pollution, and desist from acts that disturb work and rest of members of her university community.

When the General Overseer of the religious centre identified as Femi Lucas was contacted, he refused to respond to the allegations by the university including how many loudspeakers his worship centre uses.