Femi Opesusi, father of 19-year-old Timilehin Opesusi, has held the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) responsible for the death of his daughter, who died by suicide after receiving a 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) score she believed was incorrect.

In an interview with Channels TV, Opesusi recounted the events leading to Timilehin’s death on May 12, describing the family’s anguish and his unanswered questions about the examination system.

According to him, Timilehin panicked after receiving a score of 146, a significant drop from her 2024 result of 190.

“She said, ‘Daddy, this is not my result! This is not my result! Go and do something!” he said. “I told her, ‘Calm down. Take it easy.’ But she was already distressed.”
Opesusi said he tried to reassure her by offering to pay for her university education regardless of the result, adding that he had already looked into admission processes at the Lagos State University of Science and Technology (LASUSTECH).

“I told them not to worry — I’d pay for everything,” he said.

Less than an hour later, Opesusi was informed that Timilehin had ingested a substance later identified as ‘Push Out’, a type of rodent poison. He described the shock of seeing her in a hospital bed over a video call.

“I knew then that she would not survive,” he said. “She regretted it. I could see it. She was fighting for her life.”

Opesusi said Timilehin showed no immediate signs of suicidal intent before the incident. He had spoken with her and her older sister, Opeyemi, earlier that day. When she later asked for palm oil, her sister assumed she had a stomach ache. It wasn’t until Timilehin collapsed that the family realised what had happened.

Opeyemi, unaware of the severity, initially believed Timilehin had taken regular medication. “She later realised it was rat poison,” he said.

The grieving father also revealed that Timilehin had previously been offered admission to the Federal University, Offa, in 2024 but was advised against attending due to financial and logistical concerns. “I regret not letting her go to Offa,” he said.
Asked whether any representatives from JAMB or the government had reached out to the family, Opesusi replied: “Never. They have never called me. They have not granted me an interview. No government official has ever reached me.”

He dismissed reports that Timilehin was offered admission posthumously, stating, “Nobody gave her admission. It’s just rumours.”

His main demand from JAMB is the release of what he believes to be the true version of his daughter’s UTME result. “What I want from JAMB is that they should give me the actual result of my daughter, not the one they have tampered with after they heard the death of my daughter,” he said. “That cannot bring my daughter back, but that is what my daughter last requested of me.”

He recalled her final words to him: “Daddy, go and fight for my result.”

Opesusi insisted that Timilehin had prepared thoroughly for the exam. “She was so brilliant — go to her primary school, people are crying. Go to her secondary school, the same thing. She was the one who carried my name up, right from her childhood.”
Though he said the hospital did its best to save her, the amount of poison ingested was too much. “She took a sachet of that ‘Push Out’. It was too much for her,” he said.

Now mourning his fourth child out of eight, Opesusi said he had used the money saved for Timilehin’s education to bury her. “I reassured her and told her to take it easy. I said, ‘I’m working because of you people; I have the money.’ Your school fees are there, intact! Now, I’ve used the school fees to bury her.”