Grief has again struck the Obafemi Awolowo University community in Ile-Ife, Osun State, as a 200-level student of the institution, Miss Omotola Akinleye, slumped and bled to death while attending her cousin’s wedding ceremony in Ondo State.
Eyewitnesses said that Akinleye, a teenager, left the university campus and travelled to Ondo State to attend the wedding ceremony of her cousin held last Saturday.
The deceased, who was studying History in the university, was part of the bridal train at the wedding ceremony before tragedy struck.
An eye witness, who pleaded anonymity, said that shortly after the wedding ceremony commenced, Akinleye suddenly slumped and blood started gushing out of her mouth.
She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but gave up the ghost before medical attention could come her way. The news of the teenage undergraduate’s strange demise got to her colleagues as unbelievable and has left them in a deep shock.
At the campus of the OAU, Ile-Ife, on Monday, Akinleye’s course mates and friends wore black dresses, maintaining pensive mood.
The lecturers in her department also expressed shock at Akinleye’s death. The sad-looking students were also seen standing in groups discussing Akinleye’s untimely death in hush tone. Their colleague’s death paralysed academic activities for the day.
At the institution’s History Department, where Akinleye was a student before her sudden demise, all the notice boards in the lobby bore various pictures of the late teenager.
Sheets of paper filled with condolence messages were also pasted on the boards. A student, who simply identified herself as Toyin, said she knew Akinleye since she gained admission into the OAU in 2015. She also disclosed that the remains of the late student had been buried.
Some of the tributes written on the notice boards read, “Omotola, if we could just see the signal… rest on in the bosom of the Father.
Love you,” “My heart melted, it was a great shock. It was so sudden, when I heard that you, my dear friend is no more,” “It is yet to dawn on me, but anytime I check and find you missing, my heart breaks. I know we will meet on the beautiful shore. Sleep well dear friend,” and “What a loss, a big one. We have lost a great person, who would have been a fulfilled woman. On behalf of myself and Department of International Relations, we say rest in the bosom of the Lord. I pray God to grant you eternal peace and let His perpetual light shine on you.”
Meanwhile, the students held lighted candles processions to mourn Akinleye, as they sang dirges. With Akinleye’s untimely demise, the OAU has lost no fewer than five of its students to the cold hands of death since late last year.
