By DEBO AKINOLA
Dipo Ige, a part four Law student of Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile Ife, who hanged himself penultimate week, was extremely reclusive and
weird, WITNESS NIGERIA has gathered.
Ige’s colleagues and neighbours, who spoke with our reporter
in Ife last weekend, said the deceased’s behavior had always been strange,
particularly days before he eventually committed suicide.
“Dipo (Ige) behaved in funny ways when he was alive. He did weird
things. At times, he would wake up in the midnight and starts washing the
toilet. Sometimes, he woke up in the midnight banging the door," a neighbor
who would not want her name mentioned told our reporter.
At the faculty of law, where he was a student until his
death, the strange death was the popular topic when our man visited on Monday.
Students and staff, who congregated in group to talk about
the incident, expressed confusion as to what the real cause could be.
“He keeps to himself. He chose whom to speak with. Whenever
I go for night reading at the faculty, I used to see him in the dark, all
alone, looking up at nothing in particular. There was a time he questioned the
existence of God…He was a weird personality," said a student-colleague.
Being an above-average student with a Cumulative Grade Point
Aggregate (CGPA) of 4.3, the fear of possible examination failure may be an unlikely cause.
The deceased, in his suicide letter, also hinted that his
suicide had nothing to do with the separation between him and his girlfriend as
widely reported in the media.
However, independent investigations by our reporter revealed
that while Ige was said to be active in religious activities, his social life
was in dire deficit.
Apart from not keeping friends, a search on his name on the
internet brought ‘no result’, suggesting that he probably never engaged in any social
networking unlike most youth of his age bracket.
Ige, according to reports, was last seen on Friday 28th by
most of his colleagues, and was said to have sent a text message to his mother
around 9pm the next day, informing her of the planned suicide; "by the
time you are reading this, I would have been dead."
As fate would have it, Dipo's mother phone was unavailable
when the Short Messaging Service (SMS) was sent.
By the time she got the SMS an hour later, it was late for
her to come to Ife from Lagos. Determined not to lose her son,the next thing
was calling Dipo's close friend and classmate, Bola Okiji, but unfortunately he
was at Ilesa, a 40 minutes drive to Ife. Another lady, living close to Dipo's
hostel was told by her mother to check for him.
Ige’s door was said to be locked from behind. She went to
the backyard and peeped through the door. Dangling was the lifeless body of
Dipo who had already hung himself. Screaming and racing back to the room, she
forced the door open and cried. By the time she was doing this, the other
occupants of the house have been awakened.
His death brings to two the number of members of the
current part four students who had died. Early last year, one of them,
identified as Femi, got drowned while swimming at one of the popular hotels in
Ile-Ife.
He was buried at his hometown, in Iree, Osun state on
Sunday, 1st of March, 2014.
WITNESS NIGERIA also gathered that the case was not reported
at the Police Station and as such, no autopsy was carried out to ascertain the
cause of the death.
Meanwhile, the Institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Bamitale Omole, has also
commiserated with the deceased’s family, saying the institution is really
grieved with Dipo’s death.
In her tribute titled "Dipo, I apologise on behalf of
the world," Dipo's classmate, Ayotola, expressing shock, wrote that she sat
on the kitchen floor and wept for too long when he confirmed the unfortunate
incident.
"Dipo, I didn't know what went on in your head in the
last few hours of your life but I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you saw life as not
being worth it. I cannot begin to imagine the fear and hopelessness you felt in
the last hours of your life. Depression and unworthiness must have had you so
deep in their dark pit of despair. It breaks my heart the most that there was
nobody you could talk to, vent to; nobody to be a lifeline at that time. I'm
sorry that a phone call away couldn't save your life. You must have thought you
were all alone; nobody anywhere to turn to. Everyone was so busy with
themselves. When did we become peacocks, self-obsesses airheads busying our
lives with preening? We don't even have time to spare a glance at the next
passerby because our eyes are stuck to our phones.
"Dipo's death
has been reduced to a couple of posts and tweets and pictures on social media.
Grief became a tight angry knot in my chest when I saw a hashtag on twitter
(#WastedYouth) about his death. His demise has been summarised into a couple of
pings and texts so that the news can diffuse. And then we move to our next
meal, our next test, our next class; our little world revolving around us. Dipo,
I'm sorry. We were good enough for you. We didn't deserve you one bit,"
Ayotola said in a moving dirge.
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