A 300-level student at a private tertiary institution in Abeokuta, Ogun State, has reportedly committed suicide.
Daily Trust reported that the student of Basic Medical Science at Havarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies, Abeokuta, drank poisonous substance, suspected to be Sniper on Monday evening.
Sources told the publication that the student whose corpse was discovered in her hostel room located off-campus, has been battling depression and must have committed suicide over an “unwanted pregnancy.”
It was also claimed that her condition worsened after she found out that her course has not been accredited by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
A source said;
“For more than four months now, she (deceased) had been depressed because of the fact that the course she was studying was not accredited.
“She used to complain because she claimed her parents used all the money they had to send her to the school.
“Things now got worse when she discovered she was pregnant and she could not even have a certificate for the course she had done for years.”
However, provost of the institution, Dr. Ismail Oyetunji, said the circumstances surrounding the death of the student happened outside the school’s premises. He said parents of the deceased came to the school last week to pack her belongings after discovering she was pregnant.
Oyetunji said;
“A 300-level nursing student was reported to me this morning by our dean of students affair to have committed suicide. She was impregnated by her boyfriend. Her parent got to know and came last week to pack her belongings from the school.
“She came back to Abeokuta and thereafter decided to commit suicide. She was rushed to Hope Hospital by her boyfriend in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta where she eventually died.
“Everything happened outside the college premises. However, the management of the college sympathises with the parent and relatives of the deceased. We sincerely pray that God will give them the fortitude to bear.”
When asked if the suicide is connected to the non-accreditation of the nursing programme offered in the institution, the provost insisted that the student committed suicide because of the pregnancy.
He added;
“No no, it has nothing to do with that. She got pregnant and her parent was aware. They came and packed her belongings in Abeokuta because of that. It happened somewhere outside the school.”
The Nursing Department of the college has now been shut down by Ogun state government for allegedly offering a degree programme in Nursing Sciences for six years without accreditation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN).
