A 300 Level student of the Niger Delta University, NDU, Bayelsa State, Uzakah Timi Ebiweni, has allegedly taken his own life by suicide. Ebiweni, it was learnt jumped into the Amassoma River, Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State on Tuesday to end his life, which friends claimed he said was “miserable”.

 

Timi, a student of Medicine and Surgery at the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences committed the suicide after failing his MBBCH exams. It was further gathered that out of the 169 students in his class, 50 failed, in which he’s one of them.

According to a close friend, “Timi started giving hints via his WhatsApp stories by initially posting a candle light and then changing it to the picture of a candle with its light blown off.”

 

The Public Relations Officer of NDU, Ndoni Ingezi, has confirmed the incident, and said that Ebiweni’s body had been recovered and deposited in the Sabageria hospital mortuary. He was quoted as saying that the late student might have resorted to suicide after news that he was among the 22 students shortlisted to be withdrawn from the college.

 

His words, “You know, it is a general practice that every student passes the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery exams before progressing to the next level of academic pursuit.

 

“But Ebiweni and 21 others failed beyond the level that they could be placed on academic probation for another academic year; so, they had to be withdrawn. So, in our usual practice, we did not break the news to the students until they had been invited for counselling.

 

“When Ebiweni was counselled and informed that he would be withdrawn from the college , he accepted the decision of the college in good faith and left, only to for the university to hear afterwards that the young man took his own life.”