Lagos police prevent 2 women from committing suicide
A few days after a medical doctor committed suicide by jumping into the Lagos lagoon, operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) yesterday rescued two women who attempted to commit suicide by jumping into the lagoon. The women, in separate incidences, attempted to jump into the lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge and Carter Bridge in Lagos. Abigail Ogunyinka succeeded in jumping into the lagoon but was quickly rescued by divers.
The other woman, Taiwo Titilayo Momoh, was rescued while attempting to jump into the Lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge. These came after the medical doctor, Allwell Orji, jumped into the Lagoon from the Third Mainland Bridge. His remains were retrieved from the water on Wednesday.
The two women gave reasons why they attempted to kill themselves.
Ogunyinka said: “I owe two microfinance banks, one N60,000 and the other N90, 000 and the banks have been troubling me. I have looked all through and there is no help. I don’t want to face embarrassment. I took my househelp along with me and I told her we were going to the market. I took her along so she would tell my people and those that I owe that I did not run away with their money. I wanted her to tell them that I had ended my life, but, she raised alarm when I plunged into the lagoon. If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone with her because I am going back to the same problem.”
Momoh, who also blamed financial problems, said: “I am blaming the police and the people who rescued me. I am a trader at Balogun Market and I took goods from four foreigners who trusted me. I owe $36,000 and I was swindled by a bureau de change operator. Since I was duped, I have not been sleeping. It is as if I am carrying a heavy load. I have not been sleeping. I see those I owe in the dreams.”
“My problem now is that I have been rescued, I will still face disgrace. I still want to die because I have betrayed the trust my business partners had in me.”
Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, told newsmen at the Rapid Response Squad headquarters at the Lagos State Government Secretariat in Alausa that Momoh was in a taxi heading towards Oworonshoki on the Third Mainland Bridge when she told the taxi driver to stop on the bridge.
According to Owoseni, the woman was about to jump into the Lagoon when a police team on a routine patrol on the bridge sighted her and rushed to stop her.
The commissioner said from his interaction with the woman, she had depression as a result of unpaid loans, adding that she was still insisting on ending her life. He said the woman would be taken through a post-trauma programme and do a medical evaluation on her to ascertain her condition.
Owoseni lamented the rate at which people now commit suicide in the country, describing it as worrisome. He added that the police had begun patrol of bridges across the state to forestall other cases.