Grace Opeyemi, the Obafemi Awolowo University student who made headlines for committing suicide by drinking Sniper on Friday August 2, had previously attempted suicide according to a coursemate.
The coursemate alleged that Grace attempted suicide in July but was unsuccessful. Though she didn’t give full details of the previous suicide attempt, she said the deceased was rushed to the OAU Health Centre in her recent attempt but was referred to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the OAU Teaching Hospital, where she died.
Punch reported that another coursemate identified as Adekola Oluwasetan, said Grace was a poet and wrote many poems, especially on depression.
She stated, “I am not particularly close to her. I only knew her through some of her literary works. Most of her works in poem and prose were on depression.
“To me, she acted against what she preached in most of her works. I also do not believe that she died as a result of poor academic results alone.
“Her original course mates graduated last session and she could not, because she failed 12 special electives and five core courses.
“She took the papers again but she failed some of them for the second time; that is the reason I believe that her action was as a result of depression.”
A statement released by the class representatives of the English Department after a meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and other top officers of the faculty on Sunday August 4, debunked claims of Opeyemi committing suicide due to her poor academic performance.
The statement read in part “The Dean, Faculty of Arts and Head of Department, English, summoned the exam officer, the immediate past President, Faculty of Arts Students’ Association, who happens to be the course mate of the deceased, and the incumbent FASA President, alongside the English part four class representatives to a meeting in the dean’s office this evening.
“A review of her result was done and it was discovered that she didn’t have five outstanding courses, neither did she have outstanding 12 special electives.
“She had 10 units of special electives passed already and she only had LIT 420 (project course) yet to be approved or graded. Only her SER result is still being verified. In fact, she carried no course over until her demise.
“We can then deduce that the deceased, Grace Dara Opeyemi’s death is not to be attributed to poor academic performance.”
