Ebonyi University lecturer denies involvement in suicide of final-year student

Miss Favour Ugwuka, a final-year student at Ebonyi State University’s Department of English, allegedly committed suicide on Wednesday night, and the accused lecturer, Prof. Amechi Enyi, has denied any involvement in her death.

Enyi, who claimed he was threatened by the deceased mother multiple times prior to the occurrence, stated that the Question Paper for the course’s final examination (English Statistics) revealed that the late student only wrote down three questions.

On Friday, while answering journalists’ questions in Abakaliki, he maintained that it was erroneous to conclude that her death was caused by academic activities.

Remember, a woman who identified herself as the deceased student’s mother was spotted in a trending video blaming the lecturer for her daughter’s death.

Giving his side of the story, the lecturer 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 victimized, 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 victimized?

“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 results so that students could have access to the results, the school management would have approved the results.

“So the mother called me one night, she said that I was witch-hunting her daughter, 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 of ascertaining such an accusation, she refused to listen then 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.”