Professor Amaechi Enyi, the accused lecturer, has denied any involvement in the death of Miss Favour Ugwuka, an Ebonyi State University final-year English department student who reportedly committed suicide on Wednesday night.
Enyi stated the question paper for the final course test (English statistics) showed the absentee student had only written down three questions.
Enyi claimed he had received threats from his mother, who had passed away multiple times before the incident.
In response to inquiries from the media on Friday in Abakaliki, he said it was false to suggest that her death had anything to do with her academic pursuits.
Chronicle NG reports that a woman who identified herself as the mother of the deceased student was seen in a video blaming Prof. Enyi for her daughter’s death.
Giving his side of the story, the Enyi said, “I’m 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 an academic issue; I don’t see how somebody who was not victimised, someone who failed an exam, would decide to take her own life. So, the first question one should ask in this circumstance should be, was she victimised?
“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?”
He added, “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 the results so that students could have access to them, 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 and 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 for ascertaining such an accusation, she refused to listen, so I had no choice but to disconnect the call.
“And I didn’t dwell further on it because the university has a process for handling such matters. According to the university 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.”
