Abuja trader allegedly commits suicide
A trader identified as Ambrose Hounkpatin allegedly died by suicide on Sunday night at the Kubwa village area of the Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). He was said to have just rented a shop in the area and awaiting an order of second-hand clothes (Okrika) from Togo when the incident happened. […]
A trader identified as Ambrose Hounkpatin allegedly died by suicide on Sunday night at the Kubwa village area of the Bwari Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He was said to have just rented a shop in the area and awaiting an order of second-hand clothes (Okrika) from Togo when the incident happened.
Witnesses who spoke to Abuja Metro yesterday said they first saw the victim in dire condition, sitting in front of his rented shop—where he had not yet started business—with an empty plastic container of a substance known as Sniper (an insecticide).
A resident, Fatima Aliyu, said she was inside her home when a crowd gathered around the deceased, drawing her attention around 11 pm Sunday.
“On getting out of our compound along with others, we met him in a state of agony, with the victim demanding water to be poured over his body,” she recounted. “We then tried to find out what his problem was. We were told that he had taken Sniper, so we immediately looked for red oil and applied it over his mouth.”
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“Thereafter, he started vomiting through his nose, instead of his mouth,” Fatima added.
Another resident, Olamide Sadiq, said he learned that the victim consumed the substance around 7 pm. However, sympathizers initially mistook his condition for the consumption of a high substance, known simply as “polo.”
“Some of the people who mistook his condition for drug consumption even slapped him in annoyance until he confessed that he had taken Sniper,” Sadiq explained. “But no one had taken him seriously up to that time, until when the empty container of the Sniper was discovered beside him. It was at that juncture that it was noticed his mouth was smelling of Sniper, so red oil was supplied and given to him.”
After a while, he became weak before being taken to the Kubwa General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
In her account, the landlady of the shop, Aisha Dauda, said she rented the shop to him on September 1st this year.
“Thereafter, he painted the shop about three times. I approached the agent and demanded to know why he hadn’t started business, but kept frequenting the shop,” she said.
The agent then revealed to her that the man was waiting for a supply of Okirika (second-hand clothes) from his brother who lives in their home country of Togo.
“We learned that the man had converted to Islam about three weeks ago and was able to present a phone number of his relative to the agent before the incident took place,” she added.
Police in the area said the incident was not reported as at Tuesday.