The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Simon Ortunaya, has disclosed that the four students who reportedly died at a house party off campus had consumed substances suspected to be drugs.
TheNewsGuru had earlier reported that six fresh graduates of the university had been found dead in an apartment around the Hilltop area of the university community.
The victims, according to reports, comprising five females and one male, were said to have graduated on Wednesday, a day before their bodies were discovered on Thursday morning.
However, speaking to reporter Ortunaya, he said ten students attended the party, held to celebrate a friend who had just finished his final-year exams, but four of them had died after consuming substances suspected to be alcohol and drugs.
The remaining six students are currently at various stages of recuperation in the hospital, he revealed.
As a result, the institution has declared a three-day mourning in honour of the deceased students. The VC said, “Within these three days, all social and academic activities will be suspended in the university.”
He also announced the suspension of a town-hall meeting earlier scheduled between the University Community and the Governor of Enugu State, Mr Peter Mbah. He described the loss of the students as “a death too many”.
While sympathising with the bereaved families, the VC said, “The management, staff and the students of the University of Nigeria share in their grief at this difficult moment and pray for the repose of the souls of the departed.”
He said the students involved in the incident came from different departments, contrary to the widely speculated reports that they were from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He reiterated the ban on all forms of sign-off celebrations in the university, and urged students “to desist from indulging in activities that will endanger their lives”.
He said that the university authorities are collaborating with security agencies to unravel the actual cause of the students’ deaths.