- By Halimah Olamide
It is not true that her death is related to an academic issue
A lecturer at the Ebonyi State University Prof Amaechi Enyi has said he has no wrongdoing in the controversial death of a female student who allegedly committed suicide over repeated failure of one of the courses taught by the lecturer.
Miss Favour Ugwuka a final year student had taken her own life on Wednesday after lamenting failure of a course handled by Enyi.
Giving his side of the story, the Enyi said, “I’m Prof. A. U. Enyi of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. It is unfortunate; it is quite unfortunate that the girl ended the way she did. I was shocked when I heard the news.
“It is not true that her death is related to an academic issue; I don’t see how somebody who was not victimised, someone who failed an exam, would decide to take her own life. So, the first question one should ask in this circumstance should be, was she victimised?
“And of course, you know that she may not have been the only person who wrote the exam, and some [other] people may have failed also, so it is not true, and, really, that was my first reaction. How could she have decided to take her own life, that is, if she took her life?
“How could she have decided to take her own life when she was not victimised in the exam?”
He added, “Yes, I got to know about this student in February 2024 after we had uploaded our second-semester results. The results were already approved by the school because, before we uploaded the results so that students could have access to them, the school management would have approved the results.
“So the mother called me one night, and she said that I was witch-hunting her daughter and that how could her daughter have passed all other courses only to fail my course?
“And when I tried to explain to her the procedure for ascertaining such an accusation, she refused to listen, so I had no choice but to disconnect the call.
“And I didn’t dwell further on it because the university has a process for handling such matters. According to the university rules, the examination does not belong to the lecturer; we had submitted the results, the student scripts, the questions, and the marking scheme, so all these are the property of the university, and they are all verifiable.
“So, if anyone feels aggrieved, the process of recalling the papers is there. And what such an aggrieved person needs to do is not threaten my life, telling me that she is from Nsukka and that I will be dealt with.”