Father of 19-year-old Timilehin Opesusi, Femi Opesusi has accused the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) of contributing to his daughter’s death by suicide after she received a 2025 UTME result she believed was incorrect.
Speaking in an interview with Channels TV, Opesusi recounted how his daughter panicked upon seeing a score of 146 — a significant drop from her 2024 result of 190.
‘She said, ‘Daddy, this is not my result! This is not my result! Go and do something’! he recalled.
‘I told her, ‘Calm down. Take it easy’. But she was already distressed’.
Opesusi said he assured her that the family would support her education regardless of the outcome and that he had already begun making arrangements for admission at the Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH).
‘I told them not to worry — I’d pay for everything’, he said.
But within an hour, tragedy struck. Timilehin ingested a poisonous substance known as ‘Push Out’ and collapsed. Her father, speaking emotionally, said he saw her struggling to survive via a video call from the hospital.
‘I knew then that she would not survive’, he said. ‘She regretted it. I could see it. She was fighting for her life’.
He explained that there had been no prior signs of suicidal intent. Earlier that day, she had spoken with him and her older sister, Opeyemi.
When Timilehin later asked for palm oil, her sister assumed it was due to a stomach ache. It wasn’t until she collapsed that they realised the true reason.
‘Opeyemi, unaware of the severity, initially believed Timilehin had taken regular medication’, Opesusi said.
‘She later realised it was rat poison’.
The bereaved father also disclosed that Timilehin had been offered admission to the Federal University, Offa, in 2024, but the family declined due to financial and logistical issues. ‘I regret not letting her go to Offa’, he said.
Opesusi lamented that no representative from JAMB or any government agency had reached out since her death.
‘Never. They have never called me. They have not granted me an interview. No government official has ever reached me’, he said.
He also refuted claims that Timilehin was posthumously offered admission, saying, ‘Nobody gave her admission. It’s just rumours’.
His demand is straightforward, he wants JAMB to release what he believes is the real UTME score of his daughter.
‘What I want from JAMB is that they should give me the actual result of my daughter, not the one they have tampered with after they heard the death of my daughter’, he said.
‘That cannot bring my daughter back, but that is what my daughter last requested of me’.
He also shared her final words, ‘Daddy, go and fight for my result’.
Describing her as a bright and promising student, Opesusi said, ‘She was so brilliant — go to her primary school, people are crying. Go to her secondary school, the same thing. She was the one who carried my name up, right from her childhood’.
Though the hospital tried to save her, the amount of poison she consumed was too much. ‘She took a sachet of that ‘Push Out’. It was too much for her’, he said.
Now mourning his fourth child out of eight, Opesusi said the money he had saved for her schooling was what he eventually used to bury her.
‘I reassured her and told her to take it easy. I said, ‘I’m working because of you people; I have the money.’ Your school fees are there, intact! Now, I’ve used the school fees to bury her’.
