Tragedy: University graduate dies hours after taking her NYSC Call up letter

In this age of weird happenings and increasing violence and tragedies, there are still some stories that bring sad tears to the eyes. One of such heart-wrenching stories is that of Temitayo Omoniyi, a fresh graduate of the University of Ibadan who studied English and Literary Studies.

The 21-year-old, having passed out with flying colours, was posted to Ogun State for her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).


Traveling down to her university recently to collect her call up letter, she used the opportunity to greet friends and members of the Redeemed Christian Fellowship of which she was a member when she was on campus. Unknown to the victim, she was mingling with friends and acquaintances for the last time. By the next day, Saturday, March 3, while she was travelling home to Ilesha in order to prepare for her trip to the NYSC camp in Sagamu, Ogun State, she was involved in fatal motor accident. Sadly, after lying in coma for one week in the hospital, she died on March 10, 2012.

After her death, many of her friends and former colleagues who are still reeling from the shock of her passage recounted the last 24 hours of her life.

Akinremi Kehinde, one of her friends recalled their few-minutes-encounter less than 24 hour before the tragedy. “On Friday, I saw her at the Students Union building and we exchanged pleasantries. I asked her where she’d been posted and she told me it was Ogun state. I retorted jokingly that she “worked” it. She answered, saying “It is God oh!”

Another friend, Akinoso Abiodun, a unit leader of the Redeemed Christian Fellowship affirming that “the news of her death came as a shock”, recalled that “on Friday we chatted before she travelled to her home town (Ilesha).”
In tears, she described the deceased as “gentle, aspiring, nice and caring young woman.”

According to Seye Joseph, “she called me on Friday evening that she had collected her NYSC called up letter at University of Ibadan and was posted to Ogun State. She said she will not be able to come to the Brand Maximization seminar I organized for associations in the Polytechnic Ibadan on Saturday. I said congratulations, God bless you, and I will call you later. I could not call her in the night as I promised her because I was very tired preparing for the seminar. Around 4:30 a.m., I sent a message to her wishing her well in all her endeavours in life. By 6:39 a.m., she replied my text wishing me well on the programme. Unfortunately, I never knew that will be our last conversation in life and on earth.”

When the deceased was buried in her home town of Ilesa, Osun State, on March 13, 2012, delegates from the Student Union, the Redeemed Christian Fellowship and the Department of English attended the burial to pay their last respect.

Many are still lamenting the timing of her death. “After all the sufferings in school, after graduating with flying colours, just at the time she was supposed to begin to reap the fruits of her hard labour, it was then that death came calling. It’s painful; it’s unfortunate, it’s not fair” a friend lamented.