•I’m innocent but she threatened my life –Don

From Uchenna Inya, Abakaliki

The death of Favour Chinonye Ugwuka, a final year student of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), is still causing ripples in the institution. Her family, especially her mother, Grace Ugwuka,  are insisting that she was victimized by one of her lecturers whose course she wrote three times and couldn’t pass, forcing her to take her life.

But the university’s management has since absolved Professor Amechi Uneke Enyi, the lecturer handling the course (ENG 416) of any victimization. The management said the deceased didn’t deserve to pass the course given her performances on the three occasions she sat for the exam.

Favour’s body was recently found in her hostel in Ishieke, Ebonyi Local Government Area of the state. Her mother, as well as some of her friends, claimed that the girl took her life because of depression and victimization by the the lecturer.

The woman was seen in a viral video with Favour’s body, which she carried in an ambulance and dumped at the school premises, shouting: “Professor Enyi said he is the best, nobody can teach like him. He should come and carry my daughter who has committed suicide.”

A graduate of the institution, identified as Rex, claimed that the girl committed suicide because she failed a particular course repeatedly.

He said: “Favour was my classmate and best friend to me in English Department. A lecturer vowed never to allow Favour to graduate. You could imagine where she passed all the courses except that lecturer’s that she paid another extra year’s tuition fee to rewrite. Unfortunately, the man failed her again.

“What resulted in this intense depression was the latest NYSC shortlist and her name wasn’t there. The girl really suffered serious depression because she was only left wandering about the EBSU, seeking help. She was very desperate to graduate and serve. This and many more of the disgusting stories resulted to this mission.”

However, Prof. Amechi Uneke Enyi  denied victimizing Favour. He said that the death of the girl was in no way connected to him and expressed sadness over the allegation against him.

His words: “I am 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 academic issues. I don’t see how somebody who was not victimized, someone who failed an exam, will 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? 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 and 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.

“I didn’t dwell further on it because the university has a process for handling such matters. According to the university’s 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.

“I tried telling the mother that she could write a petition against me. She could investigate and then the right process would be followed, a panel could be set up to investigate the allegations and accusations, but she did not listen.

“However, she eventually did come to the university as she had threatened, but I did not even know that she came. I learnt that she was also advised to formally approach the department and the school management.

“Even the Head of the Department (HOD), who, incidentally, is also a woman, decided to informally assist her and look into the matter. The HOD retrieved her daughter’s script and it was discovered that the late student merely copied a few questions and never answered any of the questions.

“At that point, the HOD advised the mother to tell her daughter to re-register for the course during the second semester, because the course is a second-semester course and that after she (the student) may have registered for the course, the department could then approach the lecturer to explore ways the student could be assisted to pass the course.

“And that was what the HOD advised the mother and that was the last time the HOD heard of the matter because we are currently writing our first semester examinations so we have not even started the second semester when the deceased student was expected to re-register the course.

“It was this morning (Thursday) that the HOD called me to narrate what had happened. Meanwhile, this same woman (obviously, after interfacing with the HOD) came to the department and apologized to me. I told her that there was no way I could victimise a student, and I told her that I never made any demands from her daughter and I barely know the girl. And from the day the exam was written, I never saw her till the results were uploaded.

“So, what will be my reason to victimise any student? If there is a case of victimization, there is an established procedure for handling such in the university. There have been instances of people calling for their papers and the recalled paper will be re-marked elsewhere. So, that is it.

“For me, once I have uploaded my result, I have concluded with the examination, if you pass, that means you passed. And I don’t think that someone who passed can be failed, for what reason? At the end of the day, I forgave the mother and told her that if the girl came back and re-registered the course, I’ll find a way to assist her to pass the course and we both agreed on that.

“And suddenly, this morning (Thursday), when she started calling my name, I was wondering what was the connection between my name or the course and a student committing suicide. And what has she been doing in Abakaliki since February when she finished her examination and should be with her parents?

“And remember that you (the mother) extracted a promise from me that I would help her when she comes back to re-register for the second semester course with the caveat that she may not always come to class because she would have left Abakaliki by the time the second semester would commences.”

Reacting to the allegation that the late student committed suicide, the lecturer noted that the allegation should be properly investigated by students, security operatives and journalists.

“I call on the security people and you journalists to investigate deeper what may have led to her death. Some students lived with her and they would know her activities and what she has been doing in Abakaliki.

“It is obvious that the woman is bent on destroying me. From what I have seen in the picture of the body of the girl, there are noticeable wounds and bruises on the body. So, what is the relation between drinking something and the wounds all over the body?” he queried.

The university, while exonerating Enyi of any complicity in the death of the student, said it was not that the late student deserved to pass the course Enyi handled and she was marked down by the lecturer.

Vice-chancellor of the university, Prof. Chigozie Ogbu, at a press conference in the university, expressed sadness over the action Favour took and commiserated with her family. He said what the late student should have done was to demand for re-marking of the course she felt that she passed and was failed by Enyi and not taking her own life, describing it as unfortunate.

Ogbu said: “The university has a system where, if after exams a student feels that he or she is marked down or that the lecturer is victimizing him or her, he has a record as to what to do.

“When a student is confident that a lecturer has deliberately marked him or her down, and that she is sure that she passed the exam, what the student does is to complain to the HOD or dean and deserves to request for a re-mark, which will be sent to the vice-chancellor’s office and it is usually sent to another university to re-mark and let us know. Some of them, on very rare occasion, have returned positive and whatever the student gets here is usually what he gets from the other university after the re-mark and that is the process.

“If at the last exam the late student felt that she was marked down by the lecturer, she should have complained to the dean and asked for re-marking and the paper would have been sent to another place for re-marking. But from what is seen, it’s not that the student deserved to pass and she didn’t pass and, from the record, you will find out that this is not the only course that she didn’t pass.”

  Dean of the Faculty of Humanities in the university, Prof. Ngozi Emeka Nwobia, released Favour’s academic status in the school. She disclosed that the late student failed many courses from her first year to final year.

She said: “I have the certified true copy of the results of Ugwuka Favour Chinonye, with the registration number, EBSU/2018/89726, for the Department of English Language and Literature, who registered in the year 2018/2019 and that is her first year.

“In the first semester, she offered nine courses, out of which she failed three courses and had a CGP of 1.78. Second semester, first year, she took eight courses. Out of the eight courses, she failed two and had a CGP of 1.75, thereby having a sessional CGP of 1.76.

“In 2019/2020, which was her second year, she registered a total of 10 courses and, out of the 10 courses, she was absent in two courses, Intermediate English Composition (ENG 215) and Philosophy and Logic (GST 102). She was absent in the two courses. Out of the eight she wrote, she failed two. She had a GP of 1.41 in  that first semester. In her second semester, she registered 10 courses. Out of the 10 courses, she failed four and had a CGP of 1.82. Total CGP in her second year is 1.62.

“In her first semester, third year, 2020/2021, she took a total of 10 courses and failed History of English Language (ENG 301). She also failed Advanced English Syntax (ENG 313) and African Heroic Literature (ENG 325) and she made a CGP of 1.83.

“In the year 2021/2022, she took a total of 11 courses and failed two courses, making a GP of 1.83. In the second semester, she failed four courses, making a GP of 1.18. Total CGP for the session, 1.52.

“In her extra year, 2022/2023,  she registered a total of six courses in the first semester. Out of the six courses, she passed all. In the second semester, she registered a total of six courses and failed one out of the six courses, giving her a CGP of 2.84.

“After the extra year, she had outstanding courses, ENG 224, ENG 416, ENG 422. The bone of contention is ENG 416. In 2021, she scored 40, which is fail. She took it the second time in 2022/2023 and had 21, which is also fail.”

Favour’s traumatised mother, Mrs. Grace Ugwuka, who had three children: two boys and a girl, reacted to the defence of Prof. Enyi and the university’s management. She believed her only daughter would have been alive, if she had not persuaded her to re-sit a departmental course that kept her at the Ebonyi State University for five years.

Mrs. Ugwuka, a technical officer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), insisted the school frustrated her daughter to death and demanded justice.

She said her daughter’s problem with the senior lecturer started during her first year in the school in 2018: “My daughter got admission into Ebonyi State University in 2018. This unfortunate journey with this lecturer started the same year.

“My daughter called me one day and said there is a certain lecturer, that immediately she entered the school, she was told she needed to be careful of him; that anything he says he does. That she should not miss his lectures.

“On a particular day, he was marking the class attendance. When he got to her name, he called, ‘Favour Ugwuka’. She answered. He pointed at her and said she had not been attending his lectures. Then he said, ‘You will not graduate from this school.’

“My daughter told him that she had been attending his lectures. He asked her to come and show him her name. When she came, he presented the list and asked, ‘Where is your name here?’ She looked at it and said the list was not her class list.

“He asked that another class list be brought and her name was found there. He observed that she had been attending classes. But that did not change anything.”

Mrs. Ugwuka said she went to the university the next day and met the lecturer who stated that, indeed, the girl would not graduate since she had not been attending classes. She said she had pleaded with him to pardon her daughter.

She said: “In the final year, my daughter called and informed me that she failed the course of the senior lecturer. I said, so this man has not forgiven you since the first year? I said said there was no problem. She should rewrite it.

“I struggled and raised N130,000 and she registered the course again for an extra year. After taking the examination, she called to inform me that people were ‘sorting’ the lecturer. I told her I did not have money, and even if I had, I would not pay because I had never done it before.

“If I had known that the state of education in Nigeria has reached the level where if you do not ‘sort’, you will not pass, I would have gone to borrow the money and paid for her.”

Mrs Ugwuka said she was informed that a man operating a business centre in the school was collecting the money on the lecturer’s behalf.

“The course is a second semester course. She had seen all her results and she cleared them all. She had already started clearance, believing she would pass the course. But my daughter wept, saying she had failed his course again, and it was the only course she had been waiting for,” she said.

On allegations by the school that her daughter had several failures, she said: “I have my daughter’s extra year result. What they are saying about my daughter’s result is nonsense. They changed her results. My daughter is an average student.

“They claimed that she had several re-sits, so how come I did not pursue other lecturers except this one? Why did he say from the first year that this girl will not graduate? I don’t know where they got those results from. They changed my daughter’s result and created a different thing entirely. My daughter forwarded her entire results to me. She did not have any extra courses.”

Mrs Ugwuka challenged the leadership of Ebonyi State University to make public the examination scripts of her daughter and hold the senior lecturer responsible.

Meanwhile, the Student Union Government (SUG) of the school has called for holistic investigation into the death of Favour. President of the SUG, Comrade Douglas Nkwegu, said the union was very interested in the incident and urged the management of the university to ensure thorough investigation on it.

He noted that the union has launched ‘Students must speak up initiative’ following the incident, adding that many students of the school have been passing through hell in the hands of their lecturers and are afraid to speak up.

“The Student Union Government of this school is very much interested in this case. Our interest is holistic investigation of this issue and the school management has started the first section of this issue which is the investigation.

“So, I want to charge the school management not to back after this section. We equal beg this management to equally assist us, we the Student Union Government, because the students have a lot of things to say but they cannot say it and that is why immediately we hear this incident, we launch the ‘Students must speak up initiative’ because most of these students are afraid.

“They are afraid that if they say something, they will not graduate and it’s a necessary fear because as a student, you should have respect or a little fear for your lecturers. Sometimes, they find it very difficult beckoning on us, we their representatives. So, we are going to be working very closely with the management to get more information to ensure that the cause of this death is uncovered,” Nkwegu stated.