A student of the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State, Samuel Adegoke, has reportedly killed himself by drinking a substance suspected to be an insecticide after allegedly losing his school fees and that of his friend to an online betting.
Adegoke, who was a National Diploma II student of Electrical Electronic Engineering, reportedly killed himself on Monday when his colleagues were preparing for the first-semester examination.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the deceased used his school fee for online betting on Friday and lost.
He allegedly also deceived his roommate to get his password, access his bank’s mobile app and used the money meant for his (roommate’s) school fees to play and also lost.
The school’s Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Sola Abiala, confirmed the development to PUNCH Metro on the telephone on Wednesday.
Abiala said, “The Rector said he was called from the school clinic that one of the students was sick. Adegoke Samuel, ND 2 Electrical Electronic Engineering, was later referred to a specialist hospital. When they got there, they got the information that he used his school fees to bet and lost. He also used his roommate’s school fees to bet and also lost.
“We have a policy here that any student that does not pay school fees will not sit for examination. He realised that he and his friend would not sit for the examination, and that was why he committed suicide.
“We sent for his parents and briefed them. His father told us that his late son did the same thing last session and he had to send money to him to pay the fees. He said if he had known about the latest one, he would have paid for it.”
Abiala added that when asked to take possession of the corpse, the father rejected it and said he could not take his son’s corpse back home, asking the school authorities to bury him.
The polytechnic Student s’ Union President, Thanni Abdullahi, also confirmed the incident to one of our correspondents on Wednesday.
Abdullahi regretted that efforts made to save the deceased did not yield results.
He said, “What happened was that on Monday, the deceased and his friends, one of whom is his roommate, were returning from night class when the dad of one of the friends sent him his school fees. So, the friend showed the deceased the alert on his phone.
“The friend told the deceased to call his dad too for his school fee. So, the deceased collected the friend’s phone, claiming he wanted to check something.
“After collecting the phone, he accessed the friend’s bank account, and he transferred the money meant for the guy’s school fee.”
Abdullahi said the roommate discovered the money was missing when he got to the point where he would pay his fee.
He added, “On getting to where he would pay the school fee, the friend realised that the money was no longer in his bank account. So, he called the deceased who opened up to his friend that he used the money for betting.
“He promised the friend that he would raise money before the end of the day and pay back.
“On getting home, while the deceased was inside, the friends were outside. When they went inside about 30 minutes later, they found out that he had consumed an insecticide.”
Meanwhile, the South West Coordinator of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Zone D, Adejuwon Olatunji, urged students’ unions in different institutions to activate guardian and counselling programmes to sensitise students against suicide.
Olatunji said, “It is sad hearing that one of our students committed suicide even in this era where there is advancement in everything. Students and youths, in general, should not see suicide as an option, they should think before acting.
“We are as well extending and using this medium to condole with the deceased’s family, the Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro Students’ Union as a whole, we pray that things of such will not happen again.
“This is a charge for the union and the school to organize and re-activate the guardian and counselling programmes to orientate students on dangers and reasons why they should not see suicide as an option.” (Punch)
