A final-year law student of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), identified as Nwusulor Dorathy Akuchi, has died in a fatal accident on her way to resolve a problem she had in school.

The deceased, who was the school’s first Female President of the Law Students’ Association of Nigeria (LAWSAN), was on her way to the Lagos campus of the Nigerian Law School when the bus she entered had a fatal accident on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. She died on the spot.

It was gathered that back in 2021, Dorathy was accused of embezzling part of the N2million given to her for her department’s dinner.

Some of her colleagues and a lecturer in the department were said to had written a petition against her, as a result she was banned from taking her final exams.

After all efforts to resolve the issue within the school proved abortive, she decided to seek redress externally. She, sadly, died on her way to Lagos.

Mourning her, Joebliss Nnamdi Ekechi wrote on Facebook:

On the painful passing of Miss Nwusulor Dorathy- her travails.

Miss Nwusulor Dorathy Akuchi, was the first Female President of the Law Students’ Association of Nigeria (LAWSAN), Ebonyi State University Chapter, a very coveted Office which she was appointed into to defy the conventional Elections of the Faculty which had gone wild during her time, after she secured the wholesome trust and confidence of both the Faculty Management and the Students, given her excellent Academic performance, having represented her Class as a Senator at the LAWSA House of Assembly, and having also served her Class, the Law Class of 2021 as a Course Representative.

Dora met her crossroads when she kicked off preparations for the annual and compulsory LAWSA Dinner for 2021, and began raising funds from external sources to augment the meagre resources she inherited with office. Being a vibrant young lady, beautiful and brave, Dora found favour with which she staged a record-breaking Dinner for the Faculty at that time.

It was at this point that her fighters came. They demanded a cut from the Money she realised from her donors independent of their efforts, and when she insisted on applying the whole Money to the Dinner for which it was raised, they moved to pull her down. They incited Students against the Dinner, discouraged and threatened attendance of same, but because Dora was a Child of grace, that Dinner did not just succeed, it is still very famous as one of the best events in that Faculty, especially as it secured the presence of notable bigwigs both in the State and in the Legal Profession.

Dora thought she had succeeded, the stress she pulled through planning that eventful Dinner was almost washed away by the cheers and commendations which followed her success. Everything fell in place for her until spells of an indicting petition brewed the Faculty. Her Fighters who were just very few persons from her own class and other heros, had gone ahead to recruit more men into their conspiracy. Their communication rose so vast that they grew into multifarious groups: Forum of LAWSA Course Representatives, Forum of LAWSA SUG Stakeholders, and CONCERNED LAW STUDENTS Forum, all driven by one egocentric mantra “Dora Must Account.”

The members of this group were one, and had just a purpose: to bring Dora to her Feet, and to keep Dora back in the Faculty, for what reason? for refusing to give them a good cut of the LAWSA Cake, and for looking down on the canvassed pride of place they held in the Faculty of Law.

To pursue this selfishness, her fighters rose a petition inquiring into Dora’s expenditures of the money she raised for the Dinner in her place as a LAWSA President, and summed it up with an allegation that Dora embezzled a humongous amount of money running into many millions in their words, and being the money raised for the Faculty Dinner. They prayed the Faculty to harass her graduation and copied same to the School Management, in response to which a Panel of investigation was set up to hear the petition.

I believe grace saw her through again, and she got the leniency to proceed to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos Campus in furtherance of her Studies. Her fighters roared and neighed, and swore to march her feet to the Nigerian Law School. Their ploys and antics were almost failing until the day of Dora’s Bar Finals. She narrated that she was already seated for the epic Examination, having merged her posture to her Examination Number, expecting her Examination Papers, when she was called out of the Hall by the Examiners to be told of a confronting petition against her, disqualifying her for the life time Exams for which she had spent time and energy preparing. Eventually, Dora lost the chance to sit for her Exams that year with her mates, she was not called to the Nigerian Bar, and was not also sure of resitting the Exams since her petitioners sought her expulsion from the Nigerian Law School.

Dora died (yesterday) en route to the Lagos Campus of the Nigerian Law School to resit her Bar Final Exams after years of investigation and query. God had shown her mercy, but her fighters, her petitioners prevailed.

Depression killed Dora, pains killed her. We have lost a lady of substance, we have lost a beautiful and brave fellow, we have lost a star in Dora. May God avenge her death.

Joebliss Nnamdi Ekechi narrates.

Summary

Dorathy Akuchi Nwusulor was the first female President of the Faculty Of Law, Ebonyi State University.

In 2019, Dorathy automatically became President of the FOL-EBSU, after she was appointed to Chair the Caretaker Committee of her Faculty that same year because elections couldn’t hold in the whole school.

In March, 2021, Dorathy conducted the Faculty Dinner as part of her functions as the Faculty President. She also graduated in the same year after COVID-19 had disrupted the academic calendar of 2020 which should have been her year of graduation.

In 2021, Dorathy proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, where she was admitted to obtain a B.L. qualifying certificate to enable her practice law in Nigeria.

While she was still an undergraduate and the President, some members of her faculty wrote petitions against her to the faculty alleging that she misappropriated funds meant for the Faculty Dinner in March, 2021.

The faculty received the petition and set up a panel of investigation and inquiry to sit on it. She was also invited to answer to the charges levelled against her.

After series of investigations and inquiries by the penal, she was cleared and found not guilty.

However, after she enrolled into the law school, during her externship in Ebonyi High Court, it was gathered that petitions were also written against her at the law school directly alleging the same issue even after been cleared by her faculty – again she appeared under another panel and was also cleared and found not guilty.

She, however, obtained a letter from the VC and sent it to the law school stating that she has been cleared of all allegations against her.

In 2022 on the day of her Bar final exams, just as the exams were about starting she was told she could not sit for the exams as her admission was terminated from her school based on the same reports – she was sent back from the law school even though it could not immediately be ascertained whether or not it was her parent school that actually terminated her admission.

The issue was finally resolved in 2023.

She was on her way to the Nigerian Law School HQ, Abuja, to duly notify the law school DG about the latest development with her parent school and to also inform them of her intention to follow the next set to finish up her studies.

She died in a ghastly accident along the Benin-Abuja express way on Tuesday, 2nd May, 2023.