The University College Hospital, Ibadan, was yesterday thrown into confusion, after a middle- age man committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of the hospital building.
According to an eye witness who pleaded not to be names, the victim sneaked to the floor due to the ongoing nationwide strike embarked upon by hospitals staff before he jumped down from the 5th floor to commit suicide.
The incident which occurred aroundย 9.amย it was learnt caused confusion within and outside the hospital, leaving many to inquire what could lead to such unfortunate incident.
It was gathered that the victim hit his head on the concrete floor and died on the spot.
Blood stains were said to have littered the ground before some staff of the hospital were ordered by the management to clean the stained spots.
Meanwhile, the remains of the deceased have been moved to the morgue of the facility as at the time of filing this report.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the hospital, Mr. Deji Bobade while confirming the incident said that the police have been alerted about the ugly development said he was surprised that hospital has now been turned to a place to commit suicide.
He, however, informed that the management was yet to establish the contact of the deceasedโs family.
He said that the victim seized the opportunity of the ongoing strike to commit suicide.
He added that the only item recovered from him was a pair of slippers.
He said that there was no any identity on the victim.
Bobade said, โThe incident happened at aboutย 9am.ย He jumped from the fifth floor, leaving only his leather slippers. The floor is where the museum is, He sneaked to the floor, because of the ongoing JOHESU strike. It is a case of suicide, and we have invited the police. I am not aware if he left any note, but the corpse is in our mortuaryโ.
…another drowns inside Ilorin stream
โฆfamily alleges mental illness
By Ahmed Ajikobi
Residents of Kuntu in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State wereย on Mondayย shocked to the marrow when a 21-year-old Arabic student, Ibrahim Shuaib jumped inside a stream and drowned aroundย 6amย on Monday.
Shuaib, who died under controversial circumstance was said to have relocated from Lagos sometimes in January to put up his guardian at Ile Apo in Kuntu area.
It was gathered that the victim was once admitted at Yaba Psychiatric Hospital, Lagos after suffering what appeared to be mental illness before his relocation to Ilorin to study Arabic.
Speaking with his guardian who doubles as his Arabic school teacher, Sulaiman Solihu, he described the deceased as an intelligent student loved by all.
“Initially the complaint before he was brought to Ilorin from Lagos in January was that he rarely sleeps. We prayed for him and he became okay.
โHe was a year one student of Physiotherapy Department, University of Lagos but had to be taken to psychiatric home for treatment over mental disorder before he came down here.
“The victim’s mother called me on my way homeย Sundayย night that he wanted to talk to Shuaib and I contacted his colleagues at home to inform him. He then called his mother aroundย 11pmย and I was told they spoke at length.
“I learnt part of the conversation with his mother was that he asked after members of the family including his grandmother at Totowu village in Ogun State.
โWhen the mother asked why he was asking about everyone especially his grandmother who never cared about him, Shuaib I was told replied that he has missed them especially the river in her grandmotherโs village adding that he craved to swim.
โHe even requested that the mother should travel down to check on him but she rejected saying she was around last month.”
The guardian said Shuaib on the fateful day had been sent on errands aroundย 6:30 amย to buy puff puff which he delivered.
โI was later told that he went out to the stream pulling off his clothes and foot wears before jumping into it and drowning in the process.
โI never believed Shuaib had drowned when I was informed. I went to the scene but I ended up fainting, the next thing I noticed was that I was in the hospital,” Solihu disclosed.
Also speaking with our reporter on the phone, yesterday, the elder brother of the deceased, Ahmed Shuaib said his sibling called his mother a day to his death telling her of his intention to come to Lagos to see someone.
“We didn’t know the person he wanted to visit in Lagos which left us worried. He even insisted that our mother should come down otherwise, he will come over. We told him that we are coming and the following day, I was in the car with my mother travelling to Ilorin when the news of his death was broken to me on the phone.
He revealed that the deceased in the 2017 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) put in for Medicine but was offered Physiotherapy at the University of Lagos.
“My brother suddenly developed mental illness and we took him to Yaba Psychiatric hospital for treatment and it was while there that some doctors asked us to seek traditional means to cure him.
“After he appeared to have been cured, we brought him down to study attend Arabic school and we were told his condition is improving a lot and that he is already taking younger ones through Arabic lessons. Unfortunately, it ended on a sad note,” he disclosed.
When contacted yesterday, the Kwara State Police spokesperson, Ajayi Okasanmi said he was aware of the incident adding that the victim jumped into the stream at Kuntu/Oja Tuntun area.
โA distress call was put through to the command and our officers swung into action to arrest the situation.
“His remains were evacuated to one of the morgues in the state capital. The family of the deceased have showed up to claim the corps, they have also written an undertaken and the deceased has been buried according to Islamic injunctions.โ
