Residents of Gado-Nasko, Kubwa, Abuja, were thrown into
mourning today as a 48-year-old Ondo state indigene, Abdulrazak Wasiu, hung
himself for allegedly not being able to provide enough for his family on
the Eid-el celebration.
The father of
six who reportedly retired to bed hale and hearty, was seen dangling
from his bedroom ceiling fan at about 7 a.m on Thursday, with his entire
family, wailing over the sad incident.
The deceased’s wife, Rekiya Wasiu, in a chat
with our correspondent, said she had the biggest shock of her life when
her 4-year-old son beckoned on her to behold the tragic scene of her
husband.
Rekiya said, “I slept in the children’s room last night
because my first child was ill and it was too late to take her to the
hospital, since we all believed she would get better after some
self-medications.
“I told my husband to go to bed that I will join him, only for me to have slept off in the children’s room.
“Earlier
yesterday, my husband had complained bitterly that we may not be able
to celebrate the ‘Ileya’ in a grand style as we intended. I told him all
will be well, that a miracle could happen before morning. All through
yesterday, he was moody,” she sobbed.
“A neighbour called me at
about 5 p.m yesterday to say he saw my husband at abattoir, where they
sell rams and cows. He said my husband was probably negotiating to buy
one. He said he later saw him sitting on the floor with his hand on his
chin. I called my husband to please come back home but he said if he
didn’t buy the biggest ram, he would rather kill himself. I thought it
was just a joke. He however, came home much later empty handed and we
laughed over everything.
“I don’t know what to do,” the mother of
six lamented. Where do I start from? How can I bear the shame that my
husband killed himself because he couldn’t provide Sallah for his
family? What kind of life is this?” Rekiya quizzed rhetorically.
When
asked if her husband was perhaps depressed over something else, she
said, “No way. I know my husband well enough. Nothing else was bothering
him. He is a truck driver and in a week, he makes enough to cater for
us and keeps in the bank but throughout last week, the owner of the
trucks he drives, had issues with the police and all his trucks were
confiscated.”
A neighbour, who simply identified himself as
Ebuka, spoke with our correspondent saying, “Oga Wasiu sabi celebrate
Sallah. If he no fit do this one, e mean say he go kill himself?
“Well,
it is quite unfortunate,” Ebuka added, saying a doctor in the
neighbourhood said he was already dead immediately residents rushed in
to the scene after his wife raised an alarm.
When contacted,
Chief Superintendent Nurudeen Sabo, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO)
at Kubwa Police Command, confirmed the incident and said, “Wonders shall
never end.”
He, however, ordered that the corpse be deposited at
a nearby hospital but Rekiya debunked saying there would be no need for
that.
She said, “We are Muslims and we don’t keep dead bodies
for too long. I have contacted our kinsmen in the resident and they are
on their way.
As at press time, however, the kinsmen were yet to
arrive the scene. The corpse was wrapped with white linen in a mat and
deposited at the balcony.