A 58-year-old man, Joseph Onweji, has threw operatives of the Lagos State Police into bouts of laughter when he declared that committing suicide is not a child’s play, after he was saved by the security operatives as he attempted to jump into the Lagos Lagoon on July 24, 2016.
It was gathered that Onweji who said he had been ill for over 36 years with no solution, went to the Third Mainland Bridge, climbed on the railing and was about to jump into the water below when a passing Rapid Response Squad (RRS) police team stopped and rescued him.
Narrating the incident that pushed him into wanting to take his life, Onweji said:
“I have been sick for a long time. This illness started when I was just 22-years-old. It all started after I visited a house I was building in Ibadan.”
“Later that day, when I was taking my bath, I felt a burning sensation on my body. I felt really hot. I couldn’t sleep for days. Since that day, I have been feeling restless. I can’t even sleep.
I spent two months at a Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba. The doctors were unable to cure me of the illness.
On on July 24, 2016, I went to the Third Mainland Bridge. I was about to jump when RRS men saved me. For anyone to kill himself is not an easy task. If it is easy, I would have done so long ago.”
