Late OAU student exhibited suicidal tendencies — Official

The management of the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU ,Ile-Ife in Osun State, has said  it was not true that a student of the university, Opeyemi Grace Dara, committed suicide because of poor academic performance.

The authorities, however, admitted that the late Dara had exhibited suicidal tendencies in the past. This, it said, happened in April, 2019.

The university’s spokesman, Abiodun Olanrenwaju, said this in a statement on Monday, explaining that the deceased was on Cumulative Grade Point Average of 2.68, which qualified her as an average student on 2-2 class grade.

According to him, the deceased student, who was on Second Class (Lower Division), could not be said to be poor academically, to the extent of committing suicide.

The statement read: “In actual fact, Opeyemi Dara did not have any outstanding course except her project, which she had yet to submit. The project couldn’t have been a challenge to her, because she had authored two books titled – ‘Heels on Steel’ (a play) and ‘Let Me Run Mad Today’ (a poem), both published by the Words Rhymes and Rhythm Limited.

“Opeyemi Dara was admitted to the university in the 2014/2015 academic session and her graduating year result (2017/2018) indicated that she had passed all the departmental courses except Research Methodology and Project (EGL 420).

“She had not submitted any essay for grading, which is understandable by virtue of her experience of April 22 and the fact that she had not reported in the university since then.

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“The Obafemi Awolowo University has a very robust student advisory system, which has been in place for decades, and the university has the highest number of dedicated guidance counsellors of any university in Nigeria.

“The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Eyitope Ogunbodede, has appealed to all the staff and students of the university to take advantage of the mechanisms put in place by the university administration in addressing all academic, social, medical and other challenges.

“All youths are advised never to see suicide as an option since tough times do not last, but are only passing phases in the lives of all mortals.”

Dara was also alleged to have attempted suicide before by taking an insecticide, Sniper, before the last one that took her life. This, the institution said took place on April 22, 2019.

“The security unit of the university, on getting the information, went to her place of residence, took her to the university’s health centre first, where she was referred to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex.

“She was treated and discharged to her parents. She was said to have been brought in by the parents and readmitted in the Intensive Care Unit of the OAUTHC on Thursday, August 1, 2019, after another dose of Sniper, and she unfortunately died the next day. There are indications that she had an underlying medical condition”, Olanrenwaju said in the statement.

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