Girl 19 commits suicide over poor JAMB score

By Samuel Ogunsona

A heartbreaking incident has shaken the community of Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State.

A19-year-old student, Opesusi Faith Timilehin, ended her life after receiving her 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) results.

Faith, who hailed from Abeokuta but resided with her elder sister in Ikorodu, had high academic aspirations. Her dream was to study Microbiology.

According to Irohinoodua sources close to the family, Faith was deeply distressed by her JAMB score of 190, which she felt was lower than her previous year’s result.

A close friend of her said Faith had expressed disappointment over the result which had generated controversy.

“She said her last year’s result was better than this year’s,” he friend said.

She was reported to have seen the recent result as a setback dashing her hope of going for higher education. She ended her life.

Psychologists are suggesting that parents need to counsel their wards and should not insult them if they receive poor results.

Sources said in a desperate bid, Faith ingested a substance locally known as “Push Out,” a common rodent poison.

In an attempt to seek help, she visited her sister’s office, requesting palm oil to alleviate the pain.

Unbeknownst to her sister, who initially dismissed the request, Faith’s condition rapidly deteriorated.

An eyewitness reported that on their way to the hospital, Faith confessed to consuming poison at home before heading to her sister’s workplace.

Despite efforts to save her, Faith was pronounced dead at Kolak Hospital, Odogunyan.

The news took a devastating turn when it was revealed that Faith had received a provisional admission message from JAMB via her Gmail inbox just 30 minutes after her death.

A family source expressed the shock, stating, “The shocking revelation is that she was given an admission message via her Gmail yesterday, immediately after she was confirmed dead at Kolak Hospital, Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos.”

Faith’s grieving parents, who arrived from Abeokuta after the incident, took her body home for burial.

Many have condemned the poor administrative culture in Nigerian public institutions which places less emphasis on humanity but on profit.

Since the controversy, even JAMB has failed to apologise to millions of pupils affected amidst factual evidence that the institution marred the last result in the most shameful manner.

“It’s really a shame. The death of this lady should be put on the neck of JAMB. It’s a killer institution” Uche Egbe, a teacher in a secondary school in Lagos. He said some of his best students got “embarrassing figures” adding that some of his students with less reputation for academic excellence got the highest marks