Why man; Father of five kiiled himself in Ogun

THE sleepy community of Itori, headquarters of Ewekoro Local Council, Ogun State was last week thrown into a state of mourning, when the decomposing body of a popular youth in the community, Ibrahim Ishola, 34, was seen dangling on the wall of an uncompleted building.

He was alleged to have committed suicide and found three days after he was declared missing by his family.

On Thursday, when his remains were being interred in Ago Owu area of the community, tears flowed freely as mourners and his friends wept uncontrollably. Those who knew him well, as a hardworking fashion designer, could not fathom why the father of five took his life.

It all started on Saturday, February 8, 2014 when he had a serious argument with his wife for coming home late. This later led to fisticuffs that forced the wife to flee to her parents’ home in Papalanto, leaving the children behind.

The Guardian gathered that at midnight, the deceased left his house to the Camp area, a new site in the community, to hang himself.

It was the horrible odor permeating the area that forced the residents to organise a search party, which discovered his decomposing body. Due to his deformed body, nobody could recognise him until the Police from Itori Police Command came to remove him.

It was the recent calls to his cell phone found in his pocket that was used by the police to discover his identity.

Before and after his burial, lots of sacrifices and rituals were performed to cleanse the land.

Nobody could explain why Ibrahim killed himself but there were rumours making the rounds that after he was separated from his first wife who bore him four children and married the new one, whom he fought with prior to his death, he had been inconsistent in his job and always complaining of no money.

Another rumour claimed that the former husband of Ibrahim’s second wife, whom she bore three children before they parted ways, was behind Ibrahim’s predicament.

All efforts to get the deceased’s wife proved abortive but the Chairman of Nigerian Union of Taylors (NUT), the union controlling fashion designers, Aderemi Adeoye, confirmed that his problem started when he married the second wife.

He noted that he turned himself to a recluse of sort, adding that, “he had been rescued on three different occasions while attempting to commit suicide.”

Aderemi who claimed the deceased was like a brother to him, described the incident as a serious calamity to the community.

A senior police officer at the Itori Police Command, who spoke to The Guardian, confirmed the incident.

He noted that police are investigating what really led to the deceased’s taking his life, saying they would explore other avenues to unravel mysteries behind the tragedy.

He added that they couldn’t conduct any autopsy on the body because of cash constraint.