A 300-level student of a private tertiary institution in Ogun State, Havarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies, simply identified as Ajoke, has reportedly taken her life after the school allegedly failed to meet up with the accreditation requirements of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the deceased student had on Monday evening, consumed insecticide and slumped on her way to her boyfriend’s house.
It was learnt that the institution’s failure to secure accreditation of the NMCN for its nursing courses frustrated the 300-level student of Basic Medical Science to take her life.
Sunday PUNCH had earlier reported how the institution operates as an academic institution with no clear specification of where it belongs among the categories of higher schools in Nigeria.
The report titled; ‘Inside Ogun private polytechnic running unaccredited law, nursing, pharmacy programmes’, exposed how the private polytechnic was admitting students to study Law, Nursing, Pharmacy and other professional courses.
In the report, students of the college expressed concern over how they could not distinguish whether they were in a polytechnic, a university, or both combined.
The students lamented that the college, which claims to have its accreditation from the National Board for Technical Education, was also admitting students to study Law and other courses that are never run by polytechnics.
Following the situation, PUNCH Metro gathered that many of the students were left in a state of anxiety and confusion about the status of many of the courses offered at the institution.
A source hinted our correspondent on Tuesday that the student committed suicide after finding out that the school could not be accredited for nursing despite spending over three years studying the course.
The source explained, “For more than four months, she had been depressed because the course she was studying was not accredited.
“She used to think and complain because she claimed her parent used all the money they had to send her to the school.
“Things now got worse when she discovered she was pregnant and she could not even have a certificate for the course she had done for four years.
“I learnt she called her mum yesterday and told her that would be the last time to speak with her.
According to the student, Ajoke went to a pharmacy where she said she wanted to buy insecticide, and they asked her what she wanted to use it for. She said Ajoke claimed she wanted to kill mosquitoes in her room, noting that the pharmacist asked her to write that down before selling it to her.
“Unfortunately, she went inside and drank it,” she said.
An official at the state Ministry of Health who did not mention her name for security reasons confirmed to PUNCH Metro that preliminary findings revealed that the deceased was depressed even before the pregnancy.
“Some of the students confided in us that Ajoke had been depressed for more than four months because of the situation of the nursing department in the school.
“From our findings, she had been exhibiting symptoms of depression ever since her colleague saw the truth and left there for the Ogun State College of Nursing Sciences. She had been complaining about the money wasted on that school. But when she complained to the management, she was assured that the nursing department would be accredited soon within a short time. So, the pregnancy triggered everything that happened,” she stated.
Meanwhile, an enforcement team of the Ogun State Ministry of Health and members of the State Nursing and Midwifery Committee, on Tuesday, sealed the nursing department of the institution for operating without accreditation from the NMCN.
The government in a statement by the ministry press officer, Goke Gbadamosi, said the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Kayode Oladehinde, during the enforcement, disclosed that the private institution had been offering a degree programme in nursing sciences for approximately six years without accreditation from the regulatory body.
Oladehinde, represented by the acting Director of Nursing Services, Mrs Serifat Aminu, described a degree in nursing obtained from Harvarde College and similar institutions without NMCN accreditation as worthless, stating that graduates would be unable to obtain a valid license to practice in Nigeria and other parts of the world.
Reacting, the provost of the institution, Dr Ismail Oyetunji, said the activities surrounding the death of the student happened outside the school’s premises.
The provost added that the deceased’s parents came to the school last week to pack her belongings after discovering she was pregnant.
He said, “A 300-level nursing student who was reported to me this morning by our Dean of Students Affairs to have committed suicide. She was got pregnant by her boyfriend. Her parents got to know and came last week to pack her belongings from the school.
“She came back to Abeokuta and thereafter decided to commit suicide. She was rushed to the Hope Hospital by her boyfriend in the Adigbe area of Abeokuta where she eventually died.
“Everything happened outside the college premises. However, the management of the college sympathises with the parents and relatives of the deceased. We sincerely pray that God will give them the fortitude to bear.
When asked if the suicide was connected to the non-accreditation of the nursing programme offered in the institution, the provost insisted that the student committed suicide because of the pregnancy.
When contacted, the state Commissioner of Police, Abiodun Alamutu, said the command was not aware of the incident.