Pregnant Student Commits Suicide As Nursing School Fails Accreditation

A 300-level student of Havarde College of Science, Business and Management Studies in Ogun State simply identified as Ajoke, has reportedly committed suicide after the institution allegedly failed to meet up with the accreditation requirements of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCA).

GWG.ng gathered that on Monday evening, the deceased student who was also pregnant consumed insecticide and slumped on her way to her boyfriend’s house.

A student who spoke to Punch on condition of anonymity revealed that Ajoke committed suicide after finding out that the school could not be accredited for nursing despite spending over three years studying the course.

“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,” the source said. I learnt she called her mum yesterday and told her that would be the last time to speak with her.”

The source further narrated that 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.

According to an official at the state Ministry of Health who did not mention her name for security reasons, 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, GWG learnt that 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.

However the provost of the institution, Dr Ismail Oyetunji, maintained a different position from the accounts above. He stated that the activities surrounding the death of the student happened outside the school’s premises.

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.”

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