Mr. Opesusi Oluwafemi, the bereaved father of 19-year-old Faith Opesusi Timileyin, has opened up about his daughter’s final moments after she tragically ingested p0ison due to a disappointing UTME score.
Faith had dreamed of studying Microbiology at the university, but reportedly consumed rat poison after scoring 146 in the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME)—a sharp contrast to her high performance in the previous year’s exam.
In an interview with BBC Pidgin on Thursday, Mr. Opesusi expressed his grief, stating, “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.”
He added that Faith was crushed and disheartened upon seeing her result.
“She was devastated and disappointed. If she had spoken to us, we would have comforted her and told her there was still hope,” he said.
The incident comes amid growing concern following the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB)’s admission of errors in the 2025 UTME.
On Wednesday, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, confirmed that technical issues had compromised the results of hundreds of thousands of candidates.
In an emotional address to journalists, Oloyede tearfully apologised for the situation, acknowledging that at least 379,997 candidates were affected by the errors.
