I am ANDREW IORKYAAN, THE National President of BENUE MEDICAL STUDENTS ASSOCIATION {BEMSA}.

I wish to refute reports making the rounds on social that my dear friend and colleague, EJUGWU NICHOLAS IDOKO committed suicide. His death was purely as a result of an accident which occurred while he was driving home along international market road.

Before his death, MEGA as we fondly call him was a 400L student of BENUE STATE UNIVERSITY, MAKURDI. He gained admission into the university in 2005 but due to accreditation issues, we all have been stagnating in this institution. He was a charming, courageous, loving and caring young man. He was very jovial and there was little you could do that will annoy him. He would never do anything deliberately to hurt anyone. He was never someone who handled stress poorly but rather helped others cope with stress.

Two days proceeding the fateful day, he got news of his withdrawal from the college, after a haphazardly arranged exam. This was just his third attempt at the exam, but he still had another chance if he applied to the school management to sit for the exam. On receiving the news, he obviously was unhappy and depressed and further humiliated because strangely the result was pasted on public notice boards with his name and matriculation number attached.

We live in the same compound after we left the hostel and after he received the news, I made some efforts to get to him but he really didn’t want to talk about the situation. I understand him well, and he is someone who doesn’t want much sympathy when he is trying to cope disappointments. He always loves some space. I was going to call him later in the evening so we could hangout.
On the afternoon of the fateful day, MEGA had even spoken to his friend and sent her a picture of a shoe he wanted to buy for her.
She was worried about him but he assured her he will be fine.

MEGA had spent much of the day at some of our colleague’s place at Abu Kin Shuluwa road which is adjacent to international market road in Makurdi. In the evening, when he was about to leave, he wanted to copy some movies so he could while away time at home, so he wanted to dash home to get a flash drive and copy the movies. As he was about to leave, our colleagues told him food was ready and he should eat before leaving, but he told them, ‘I dey come, I dey come’ and he zoomed off.

An eye witness at the scene of the incident says he was driving pretty fast and swayed to avoid a truck parked by the road, the collided in the road divider and lost control of the vehicle and applied the brakes. The car the somersaulted, killing a pedestrian in the process. MEGA was thrown out of the car as it tumbled and died on the spot.

On hearing the news, students were irked because they felt the circumstances surrounding his withdrawal and the way it was managed by the college had put him in an unstable position and played a key role in the accident. Students felt that after spending 10 years in the University for no Fault of his, he should have been given more chances to attempt the exam and even if he was to be withdrawn, exposing his result to the public was wrong and not offering him any psychological counselling was a blunder from the management.

The actions of students should not be misunderstood to mean we felt he took his life. His death was purely as a result of an accident.
It is painful that some inexperienced and ignorant individual with a pen and paper would want to use this sad and unfortunate incident for selfish reasons, not caring how much pain it is causing to the already grieving family and friends. MEGA was a very courageous young man with no past history of suicide attempts despite the series of frustrations and disappointments we have had to face as result of our protracted stay in the university.

I just want people to get the facts straight and respect Idoko for who he was and not to remember him for the unfortunate events that occurred in the last three days of his life. Accusing my friend of a crime he never committed is tearing me apart.

I just want people to let him rest in peace.

Thank you.