“My Daughter Drank Rat Poison After Seeing Her UTME Score” — Father of Girl Who Committed Suicide

The father of 19-year-old Faith Opesusi Timileyin, who tragically took her own life after receiving a low score in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), has revealed that she died after ingesting rat poison. Mr. Opesusi Oluwafemi shared the heartbreaking details in an interview with BBC Pidgin, expressing sorrow over his daughter’s emotional state following the release of her results.

Faith, who had ambitions of studying Microbiology at the university, was reportedly devastated after seeing her UTME score of 146—much lower than she had achieved in the previous year. “My daughter scored very high in last year’s JAMB result. This year, they gave her 146 and that was what made her drink rat poison. She was devastated and disappointed when she saw her results,” Oluwafemi said.

He added that Faith did not communicate her distress to the family, saying, “If she had opened up, we would have consoled and told her that there is hope.”

The tragedy comes in the wake of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) admitting to errors in the recently concluded UTME. JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, tearfully acknowledged on Wednesday that mistakes had affected the results of at least 379,997 candidates, and issued an apology to those impacted.