Families, friends and colleagues of a Higher National Diploma 2 Civil Engineering undergraduate of the Yaba College of Technology, Tosin Osatuyi, popularly known as Moore, have been mourning his death a day after he sat his final examination.
It was gathered that after Osatuyi sat the final examination, he joined his colleagues on the campus to celebrate the feat. During the celebration, the elated students took pictures and used markers to sign on their T-shirts.
After a while, Osatuyi and some of his colleagues proceeded to a sports viewing lounge in the Tejuoso area of Yaba, where they continued the celebration. While at the lounge, it was learnt that a fight broke out and Osatuyi, who was allegedly injured in the process, was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
However, Osatuyi, who was said to be hale and hearty after his final exam, died on Wednesday, July 28, 2021, after efforts by medical doctors to save him proved abortive. The Ondo State indigene was said to be the class governor of the graduating Civil Engineering students.
Osatuyi’s colleague, who craved anonymity, said his death threw a lot of students into mourning, adding that his remains were deposited in the mortuary of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.
The colleague said, “I am an HND 2 student of Civil Engineering and last Tuesday was our final paper; some of my colleagues had an elective course on that day and after the exam, we took pictures at the engineering building and everyone signed on each other’s white round-neck T-shirts.
“We also went to the multipurpose hall to take pictures and from there, some students went for other engagements. But before all the students left, Osatuyi was asking us to come to the lounge to celebrate together before we go home.
“I was not prepared to go out that day, but what took me to the lounge was because I went to collect something from my friend, who went there with Osatuyi and the other students to celebrate. When I got there, I spent around 30 minutes and left for my hostel to sleep around 7.30pm.
“On Wednesday morning, I heard that there was a fight at the lounge and someone was rushed to hospital. I asked who the person was and I was informed that it was Osatuyi; I was shocked. But when I was informed that he was responding to treatment, I gave thanks to God. Unfortunately, that same day, he passed away. I don’t know what caused the fight.”
Another colleague said Osatuyi’s friends raised money for an autopsy to be conducted to ascertain his cause of death, but his parents allegedly rejected the move.
He stated, “I tried to find out what really happened during the fight, but all the people I asked said they left the lounge before the fight. Before his corpse was taken down to his hometown in Ondo State, I went to LASUTH to pay my last respect to him. His parents insisted that they didn’t want an autopsy and demanded that his corpse be conveyed down to their hometown for burial.”
When contacted, the spokesman for Yabatech, Joe Ejiofor, confirmed the incident and commiserated with the deceased’s family.
He, however, stated that the school management had not been officially briefed about the circumstances surrounding Osatuyi’s death.
Ejiofor said, “He (Osatuyi) just concluded his HND 2 exams; they were the last batch, who sat their exam last week. It is a tragic story and my heartfelt condolences to the family. For somebody, who had just concluded his exams and should begin to reap the fruit of his labour to just die like that is quite tragic and unfortunate.
“I have seen the dean, and the student, who met with the dean has not given us the true picture of what happened. What he said was that they wanted to do a candle light procession and we told them that they could not do it.
“The college cannot begin to carry out any investigation because nobody from the family has come to inform it of the incident. What we are just hearing is that some students went out after their last paper to have a get together and in the process, the incident occurred. It did not happen in the college. I cannot begin to tell you what and what the college will do until we get a full gist of what happened.”
PUNCH