A female student believed to be of Fulani extraction from Cote d’Ivoire allegedly committed suicide by jumping from a moving vehicle to ostensibly escape a forced marriage in Niger. The incident occurred at Zogyuri, near the Aviation Spot in Tamale, in the early hours of Wednesday. The body of the deceased, identified only as Mariam, about 22, has been deposited at the morgue of the Tamale Teaching Hospital awaiting autopsy. According to the police, no part of the deceased’s body had been tampered with when the police arrived at the accident scene on Wednesday morning. “Our preliminary investigations indicate that Mariam might have fallen off the vehicle on which she was travelling, judging from the bruises she sustained on her face and body,” the police stated. The Northern Regional Crime Officer, DSP Mahama Arhin, said police contacts with one Alima, whose number they retrieved from the deceased’s phone, indicated that Mariam was travelling from Gonokrom along the Ghana-Cote d’Ivoire border in the Western Region to Niger with her father whose name was not given. Alima explained to the police that Mariam’s father had been pestering her to accept a marriage proposal from a suitor in Niger for some time now but Mariam had always turned down the proposal and insisted that she wanted to continue with her education. She alleged that before Mariam embarked on her fatal journey, she had asked her (Alima) and some friends to assist her to escape from home to avoid the proposed marriage. She, however, said their intervention did not yield any results, as Mariam’s father was adamant and travelled with her on Tuesday. When the police contacted the supposed husband, Nashiru Abubakari, in Niger, he confirmed that Mariam was being brought to her for marriage. The police are conducting further investigations into the matter.