The University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) in Enugu State has confirmed that four of its students died after a party at a lodge in the Hilltop area of Nsukka. Vice-Chancellor Professor Simon Ortuanya said management received a distress call at about 10 p.m. on Wednesday that some current and former students were in crisis, prompting university security to respond. On arrival, officials found a house party at a lodge called Praise Lord, located outside the university around the Hilltop community.

Ortuanya said four people died immediately and six others were rushed to hospital, where they are receiving treatment, with some still in critical condition. Statements from the university indicate that 10 students from different departments attended the gathering, which was organised to celebrate a friend who had completed his final-year examinations. Reports said those involved had recently graduated and organised the party as part of sign-off events. The university clarified that the students were not all from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, dismissing earlier reports to that effect, and the Pharmaceutical Association of Nigerian Students, UNN chapter, said it could not confirm any pharmacy student among the victims.S1S2

Preliminary investigations, carried out with security operatives and other relevant bodies, point to alleged alcohol abuse and drug use, though the university has not reached a conclusive finding on the cause of death. Ortuanya said the four students who died allegedly consumed substances believed to be a combination of alcohol and drugs. He did not provide the victims' names or departments. The university has already banned sign-off ceremonies on all its campuses, and Ortuanya said graduation should be a moment of reflection instead.S1S2

Ortuanya declared a three-day mourning period, during which all social and academic activities in the university are suspended, and the management also suspended a planned town hall meeting between the university community and the Enugu State Governor. Videos circulating on social media showed several people lying motionless inside a room at the lodge, and the bodies of four people, two males and two females, were taken to Faith Foundation Hospital.S1S2