Poser over death of ex-UI don in razed apartment

More facts emerged at the weekend over the death of a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, University of Ibadan, Mr Zubairu Aminu Othman, who was reported to have taken his own life at Block 6, Flat 4, Phillipson Road area of the university, as university sources claimed that domestic and academic challenges might have led to the incident.

Zubairu had, last week, been found dead at his apartment after officials of the university’s Fire Service Section managed to put out a fire, which razed the apartment except the room where the late lecturer’s lifeless body was found in his bed.

Commenting on the incident, however, the University of Ibadan’s Director of Public Communication, Mr Olatunji Oladejo, while speaking to Sunday Tribune, stated that the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, condoled the family of the deceased, his friends and staffers of the Mathematics Department, over the sad incident, adding, however, that it was speculative to say that the deceased took his own life.

He maintained that the causes of the fire incident and Zubairu’s death were still being investigated, noting that the vice chancellor commended the fire brigade officials for “their quick intervention, which saved the situation, as there could have been more casualties.”

Oladejo, who stated that Zubair had resigned from the service of the university, though he was allowed to keep his apartment for some time on compassionate ground, said: “I can tell you for now that nobody can say categorically what caused the unfortunate incident at Block 6, Flat 4. No one can say whether the deceased set his home ablaze or whether an electrical appliance blew up and the inferno got aggravated while the man was caught up inside. I will not be able to say for now that Mr Zubairu committed suicide; we have to wait till the appropriate units and organs of the university submit their reports on the incident to the vice chancellor.

“For now, we have to wait for the autopsy report to know the cause of his death. Nobody was an eyewitness to the incident; it was when the Fire Brigade Unit of our Campus Security Service got to the apartment and were able to put out the fire within a short time and one of the officials was assessing the extent of damage that he saw someone lying lifeless. He rushed to pick him up and they rushed him to Jaja Clinic and I think he was brought in dead.”

Investigations by Sunday Tribune, however, revealed that Mr Zubairu, who hailed from one of the Northern states, had been facing domestic and academic pressure for years, having been on a Ph.D. programme for many years and had once had a cause to be summoned to the Social Works Department of the university for mediation on a “crisis between him and his wife.”

The chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), UI branch, Professor Deji Omole, told Sunday Tribune that news of Zubairu’s death was shocking, noting that though he was a passive member of the union, whatever he went through was not known to the union’s welfare committee.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the deceased had, sometime in 2017, resigned his appointment with the university in protest against how N60,000 monthly deduction was allegedly being made from his salary, following a ‘court ruling’ on an issue he described in a handwritten resignation letter as “family problems.”

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In the letter dated May 9, 2017 and signed by the deceased, which was sighted by Sunday Tribune, the deceased had given a three-month notice of resignation to the university, saying: “My decision to resign is as a result of family problems, which led to a ‘court ruling’ to deduct the sum of N60,000 monthly from my salary. I was not aware of the ‘court ruling’ but I was reliably informed by the Legal Unit of the university of such ruling. Also, I did not approve such monthly deduction.”

Sunday Tribune gathered that the apartment Zubairu occupied was recently reallocated to another staffer, though this could not be confirmed as of the time of filing this report, a development which sources noted might have led to further pressure on the man.

The deceased’s wife, neighbours and former students, however, claimed that Zubairu was not suicidal, as he was a peaceful and reserved man.

One of his undergraduate students, on hearing of his demise, queried: “Why? Can it be because of his Ph.D.?”

Another UI graduate who was taught by the late Zubair at undergraduate level described him to be a thorough, disciplined and strict lecturer.

But Mrs Fatima Zubair, while speaking with Sunday Tribune said: “I am short of words. He was easily accessible, friendly. I was not with him when it happened. I was called and had to rush down there.”

She gave an account of how the deceased had been caught up in the inferno, though he did not suffer a burn and how he was “rushed to the hospital but could not be revived.”

When asked about the claims that the deceased was frustrated over his lack of success over a Ph.D. degree, she replied saying that she was not going to speculate on that.

The encounter, however, got heated when Sunday Tribune, through a text message and subsequent phone call to Mrs Zubair, asked her to confirm the veracity of speculations that the marriage had hit the rocks and that the deceased resigned following a monthly deduction of N60,000 from his salary for his children’s upkeep based on a court ruling.

A male ‘family member’ who refused to give his name, told Sunday Tribune to stay with the university’s account of the incident.

The ‘family member’ had, however, called a second time, saying that “we will appreciate if you do not print out anything that is libelous or scandalous against the wife of the deceased. Anything that is printed that is not true or outside or contrary to the press release of UI, we might actually take it up with your media outfit.”