Romantic relationship has always been part of students’ activities on campus as most students of tertiary institutions around the world have their major love affairs on campus. There have been cases of campus love affairs with good endings just like we see in movies, while there are many which had gone sour.
Amidst the industrial action going on in Lagos State Polytechnic, a student of the Department of Hospitality Management Technology, Ezekiel Josph Mayowa, committed suicide after having a row with his girlfriend.
The 34-year old Mayowa, is believed to have taken his own life in the early hours of May 31, 2019 in his Eyita apartment in Ikorodu. Reliable sources’ account stated that his 24-year old girlfriend, Olokodana Bolaji, who graduated from the same institution and is now on the compulsory one year National Youth Service Scheme, had an argument with Mayowa over the status of their relationship that morning.
According to Bolaji’s statement to the police, her late boyfriend struck her when argument erupted between them that early morning and she ran inside the restroom from being hit: “I ran to the rest room and upon my return, I found him gasping for breath with an empty bottle of Sniper beside him.”
Spokesman for the polytechnic, Olarewaju Kuye, confirmed the incident but said he had no details on how it happened.
There has been an unsolved mystery about the death of Ezekiel Joseph Mayowa. This is due to the contradictory statement, Facebook video-post footage and the girlfriend’s police statement. Unconfirmed sources narrated that the late Mayowa bemoaned how his girlfriend jilted him for another man she met at her youth service camp. In the 3 minutes 18 seconds video, he shared on Facebook his sadness over Bolaji’s betrayal of their love of nine years and why he wants to die. “I am going, I need to go, Bolaji Temmy is the woman I’m talking about. I need to go. To all the boys out there, please, try to make money before you date any woman. I’ve tried my best. I’ve tried all I could. We’ve been dating for nine years and now she is leaving. I hurt her in the past, but I’ve appealed to her. But she insisted on leaving me.”
Though, he apologised to his mother and friends before taking his own life. The remaining part of the video clip tells his affinities not to mourn his death; “I will miss my mum. Mummy, please don’t cry. I have chosen my own path…I will miss you all. Your president is going…I am going. I am going now. I am empty. Bye,” he concluded.
Muyiwa, who blamed the National Youth Service Scheme, called for the government to terminate the scheme. In the video, he said, “I will advise the Federal Government to scrap NYSC because that is where I lost my joy; my love. I am not a bad boy; I am not wicked. Since my woman got into that (NYSC) camp, everything changed. Since last year, we’ve not been able to resolve anything. My woman is now taking an advantage of the mistake I made three years ago to leave me.”
Opinions over this case vary as some believed it is suicide but others think otherwise. Questions have risen about the footage of the last words of Muyiwa and the time of the alleged suicide. The video was said to have been recorded the night before the incident by 5 a.m. and how come the same girl was in the same room when the footage was recorded and hours later the death happened. How come a girl who has jilted her boyfriend was still around him when he died?
Obviously, the estranged lovers had serious issues as all evidence revealed. The State Police statement to pressmen confirmed this when Mr. Bala Elkana, Police Public Relation officer, related Bolaji’s statement; “She said while she was with the deceased in his room, they had a quarrel and he, as usual, resorted to physical violence.
Whereas in the video clip, the deceased stated that his girlfriend cited an undisclosed incident that occurred three years ago as the reason for quitting the relationship and that several pleas for her to forgive him fell on deaf ears. These raised many doubts about the actual motive of the suicide. The police homicide team from Yaba are still investigating the motive of the suicide as at the time of filing the report.