Miss Opesusi Faith Timilehin, 19, has reportedly committed suicide on Monday by taking a rodent poison after she discovered she scored low in the recently concluded Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Reports said that Faith scored 190 in her second attempt in the exam, something lower than her marks in 2024, when she attempted the university entrance examination for the first time.
Faith swallowed the poisonous substance on Monday, May 13, at Odogunyan in Ikorodu, Lagos State, where lived with her sister.
Sources in the area stated that Faith was rushed to nearby Kolak hospital where she was confirmed dead.
Ironically, a university admission message was reportedly received via her Gmail account hours after her death.
Referring to the detailed statement by JAMB on May 12, it was revealed that over 1.5 million candidates scored below the 200 minimum admissible marks into universities.
This has sparked reactions from Nigerians, who viewed the performance as poor, given that most universities require scores above 200 despite the 140 cutoff mark.
Faith’s story has reignited conversations about the pressures faced by Nigerian students and the transparency of examination results.
At the time of this report, further details surrounding the circumstances leading to Faith’s tragic decision remain under investigation
A native of Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State, Faith, according to family and neighbours, was a calm and respectful young woman with high academic hopes.
She had applied to study Microbiology and was deeply disappointed by her score of 190, which she considered lower than her 2024 result.
“She said her last year’s result was better than this year’s,” a close friend told News Central on the phone.
After ingesting a substance known locally as “Push Out” –a local rodent poison– Timilehin reportedly went to her sister’s office and asked for palm oil to ease the pain.
Her sister, unaware of what had happened, initially ignored her request.
Moments later, she raised an alarm when Timilehin’s condition worsened, attracting neighbours and sympathisers.
An eyewitness confirmed that Timilehin eventually confessed on the way to the hospital that she had consumed poison at home before visiting her sister’s workplace.
“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,” a family source stated.
Following the incident, her grieving parents arrived from Abeokuta and took her body home for burial.
