OAU student commits suicide over ‘poor academic performance’

The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) community was on Saturday thrown into mourning mood following the death of Opeyemi Dara, a final year student.

The deceased was said to be a student of faculty of Arts, pepartment of English Language, who allegedly committed the suicide after taking a suspected dose of lethal substance popularly known as “Sniper”.

NAN reports that she allegedly took her life following her poor academic performance, although the details of the incident were still sketchy.

The authorities of the institution confirmed that the deceased committed the alleged suicide following depression occasioned by poor academic records.

Dara’s academic records obtained indicated that she had five outstanding courses and 12 special electives.

Abiodun Olanrewaju, the public relations officer of OAU, confirmed the incident and promised that the institution would investigate and make its findings public.

He appealed to students not to contemplate committing suicide because of poor academic performance,

“We sympathise with the parents and guardian of the deceased known as Dara,” he said.

“We just want our students and young ones to know that depression is not a thing they should encourage, no matter the situation or circumstance they find themselves.

“Some people in the past have passed through the same situation and circumstances and came out clean.

“Now, suicide can never be an option and people, especially the young ones who believe that taking their own lives is an act of gallantry should know that it is not .

“We want to appeal to students, particularly OAU students to take things easy. Any child that fails; that is why the university says you can rerun a course, you can resit a course.

“People out there also face challenges and when you are in school, failure or repetition of a course or particular subject is also part of the challenges students must face.

“The university will get to the root of the incident and get back to the public.”

The rate at which Nigerian students have been taking their own lives has reached a high-water mark in 2019. The use of sniper as a tool for suicide is also an issue of concern.

In May, Chukwuemeka Akachi, a young poet and an alumnus of the UNN, had taken his own life after reportedly consuming two bottles of the poisonous substance.

Segun, a 22-year-old candidate of the 2019 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), had attempted suicide using the insecticide via a live stream on social media, over his low scores in the April exam.

Chinedu Iromuanya, a national diploma student of Nasarawa state polytechnic, had attempted committing suicide by drinking ‘sniper’.