The Management of the Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki has said that the school nor its lecturer has no hand in the death of a final year student of the institution, Miss Favour Ugwuka.
The position of the school was made known in a press conference jointly addressed by the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Chigozie Ogbu alongside the Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Prof Ngozi Emeka-Nwobia.
The press conference was a response to accusation of the mother of the deceased student who was a final year student of the Department of English and Literary Studies in the school which is contained in a trending video in the social media.
FACTSHEET reported that the student was found dead in a private hostel at the Ishieke area of the town on Monday May 22, 2024 with bruises all over her body.
Speaking on the death of the student which he described as unfortunate, Prof. Ogbu regretted that the deceased student never reported any of her discomfort to the school management.
He explained:
“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, the student knows what to do.
“When a student is confident that a lecturer has deliberately marked them down, and they are sure that they passed the exam, what the student does is to complain to the HOD or Dean and request re-marking, which will be sent to the Vice Chancellor’s office.
“It is usually sent to another university to re-mark and let us know. Some of them, on very rare occasions, have returned positive, and whatever the student gets here is usually what they get from the other university after re-marking, and that is the process.
“If at the last exam, the late student felt that she was marked down by the lecturer, she would 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 deserves 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.”
“If she had been victimised by a lecturer, she should have approached the school management for complains.
“We have our Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee and if any lecturer found victimising a student, such lecturer will definitely be sanctioned and called to order.
“The School Management in collaboration with the security agencies are still investigating the incident.”
On her part, Prof Ngozi Emeka-Nwobia, who spoke on the academic records of the deceased student, it was revealed that contrary to social media insinuations that the student had written a particular final year course four or five times, the late Favour Ugwuka had written the particular course two times and it was also disclosed that aside from the final year course thatProf. A. U. Enyi was accused of repeatedly failing her, the student also had other outstanding courses she had not passed.
The Dean said:
“I have the certified true copy of the results of Ugwuka with the registration number; EBSU/2018/89726 for the department, who registered in the year 2018/2019 and that is her 1st year.
“In the first Semester, she offered nine courses out of which she failed three courses and had a CGP of 1.78. In her 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 the year 2021/2022, she took a total of 11 courses and failed two courses making a GP of 1.83. In 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 first semester and she passed all. In second semester, she registered a total of six courses and failed one 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.”
The lecturer the deceased student’s mother had accused of being responsible for her daughter’s death, Prof. A U Enyi who spoke to FACTSHEET on Friday had refuted the allegation insisting the deceased student was never victimised.
Further checks by FACTSHEET on Monday revealed that Prof Enyi had been invited by the Ebonyi State Police Command to give his statement on the incident.
