A grieving father has blamed an admitted technical glitch by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) for the tragic suicide of his 19-year-old daughter, Faith Opesusi Timileyin, who reportedly ingested rat poison after receiving a score of 146 in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
Mr. Opesusi Oluwafemi, speaking on Thursday, said the devastating score crushed his daughter’s hopes of studying Microbiology and pushed her into a spiral of despair.
He claimed Faith had performed exceptionally in the previous year’s UTME and had high expectations for this year’s result.
“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,” Mr. Opesusi told BBC Pidgin.
“She was devastated and disappointed. If she had opened up, we would have consoled her and told her that there is still hope.”
The incident has drawn heightened attention in the wake of a rare emotional disclosure by JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, who on Wednesday admitted that nearly 380,000 candidates were affected by what he described as “technical glitches” in the processing of the 2025 UTME results.
Breaking down in tears during a press briefing, Prof. Oloyede said the board regrets the error and is working to correct the discrepancies.
However, the timing of this admission has sparked public outrage, with questions being raised about the psychological toll such systemic lapses can have on young Nigerians.
Faith’s death has reignited calls for urgent reforms in the nation’s examination system and for robust mental health support structures for students.
“This tragic incident is a wake-up call,” said Dr. Chika Umeh, a clinical psychologist. “We must begin to treat student mental health as a national priority. Examination bodies must also be held accountable for the human impact of their technical failures.”
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