Tragedy was averted on Saturday at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, when an undergraduate, identified as Sydney Prince, jumped into a river in a bid to end his life.
Prince, who’s studying Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, is the leader of the “Man O’War,” a campus security outfit in the university.
An witness identified as Stellamaris, an undergraduate of FUTO, said that Prince jumped into the Otammiri river, which is within the school environment after making several phone calls.
Speaking with Punch, she said, “While I and my friends were doing our morning exercise at the Otammiri river bank, he was at the other side of the river crying as he was making phone calls. We ignored him and kept jogging. But after about 20 minutes, he jumped into the river. That was when he started shouting and screaming for help from passers-by.
“He was struggling and gasping for breath. My friends ran to the street to solicit assistance from people and immediately I saw his head, I started encouraging him to hold on to a tree in the river. He finally lost consciousness and was already drowning when professional swimmers arrived and rescued him.”
A source close to the victim, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Prince attempted suicide because he was frustrated by what he believed was unjust treatment by the school management.
“The school management has refused to allow him graduate. He has a lot of spill-over courses. And as the leader of the Man O’war, all the allowances accrued to him in the last 12 months have been withheld. After fighting cultists in the campus, it is very annoying that the school management has been frustrating him.”
When contacted the university’s public relations officer, Chike Ezenwa, confirmed that Prince was a student of the institution. He didn’t say anything more than that.