The family of 19-year-old Timilehin Faith Opesusi is in mourning after the teenager died by suicide following her disappointment over a low score in the 2025 Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
The Guardian learnt that Opesusi ingested rodent poison on Monday after scoring 190 in the recently released results. Opesusi, who hailed from Abeokuta but resided in Odogunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State, with her older sibling, was described by neighbours as “gentle and humble.”
Sources disclosed that she had applied to study microbiology and had also taken the examination last year, scoring higher than this year.
“She said her result last year was better than this year’s,” one of her close allies told The Guardian over the phone. Neighbours became alarmed when Opesusi asked for palm oil at her sister’s office to relieve the pain caused by something she had ingested at home. Recognising the severity of the situation, her sister raised the alarm, attracting sympathisers to the scene.
On the way to the hospital, Opesusi reportedly confessed to taking poison before proceeding to her sister’s office. Tragically, she passed away at Kolak Hospital in Odogunyan, Ikorodu.
In a shocking twist, just 30 minutes after her death, Opesusi received a provisional admission notification via her Gmail account. Her parents arrived in Ikorodu upon hearing the news and took her body back to Abeokuta for burial.
Residents expressed their frustration with JAMB, blaming the examination board for widespread failure in the 2025 results.
