My sister was murdered – Brother of OAU undergraduate who allegedly committed suicide

Timothy Afolaranmi, the brother of a late undergraduate student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, Mercy Afolaranmi, has faulted reports that his sister committed suicide.

Timothy claimed that 16-year-old Mercy was a devout Christian who would never take her own life, adding that she was murdered.


PUNCH Metro had reported that the 100 level student of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, allegedly took rat poison last Thursday after she had E in CHM 101, a compulsory course.

She was said to have been rushed to a hospital in the area where she was confirmed dead.

A check on the victim’s social media page showed that the Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State indigene was religious.

An image she shared on her Facebook page on October 10 with a pre-written text said, “If the trumpet sounds today, where will you be? If you die without Christ, you will regret it. Jesus is coming soon, repent now. Revelation 22:12….”

Mercy, while sharing the post, wrote,
“Above all other things, I just wanna see God, see what he looks like, speak with him face to face. I don’t wanna miss heaven. LORD HELP ME.”
Our correspondent observed that for more than two weeks after she made the post, nobody commented on it.

However, since her death became public knowledge, hundreds of friends, family members and sympathisers had flooded the post with comments.

Timothy, in his comment, noted that the post showed how deeply religious his sister was, adding that she couldn’t have committed suicide over her poor exam grade as being speculated.

He asked security agencies to quiz the victim’s roommate with whom he claimed she had a disagreement before her death.

He said, “This girl (Mercy) made liquid soap for sales; she did that on Tuesday. She knew how acidic the constituents of soap is, she could have killed herself with that. Why stressing herself to the extent of getting batteries and rat killers? She was due to have a seminar presentation in Ekiti on Thursday or so…she had her presentation all jotted out; why will she disturb herself and write out her presentation when she knew she wanted to die?

“If a suicide is committed, it’s a painful death and it’s self inflicted. Why will her room be scattered and her vomit scattered around the room? She could have just vomited at a place, endure the pain and give up the ghost.  She had a roommate. They had issues this semester. Recently, they weren’t cooking together, which showed they had differences between them. She (the roommate) was the one who held her phone all through Wednesday. Why? She wouldn’t allow anyone to speak to her all through Wednesday, saying she’s busy resting, why?

“She’s a devoted Christian… She went to her pastor on Sunday and raised three questions. One on evangelism, the second, I don’t remember, and the last was how to manage a relationship between two female friends. Why? It was because of the issues between her and her roommate.

“I’m her brother. I know her more than anyone else. I seldom visit her in school. She had not always been the best in her class, so she knew life is a competition. She understood well that life is not about school results, because she had good examples from her brother and sister. She knew the money we gave her was not from school results, but from societal intelligence.”

Timothy said although the family had accepted its fate, he believed she was killed.

When our correspondent contacted the Osun State Police Public Relations Officer, Folashade Odoro, her call rang out.

When she called back, upon hearing that the caller was a PUNCH correspondent, she cut the call.

However, state Commissioner of Police, Fimihan Adeoye, said the command was investigating the case.