• Woman rescued after jumping into lagoon too
By Christopher Oji and Itoro Godwin
It was a tragic Sunday in Lagos, yesterday, as a medical doctor drove to the Third Mainland Bridge, parked his vehicle and took a fatal plunge into the lagoon. Before help could come, he drowned.
Also an unidentified woman jumped into the lagoon, in the Maza-Maza area of Lagos. She was lucky, as help came before she could drown.
Daily Sun gathered that the medical doctor, who was with his driver, drove to the middle of Third Mainland Bridge, stopped and alighted. Before his driver knew what was happening, he jumped from the bridge into the lagoon.
Speaking on the suicide of the medical doctor, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Kehinde Adebayo, said the agency was alerted by concerned Nigerians.
According to him, “the agency received a distress call about a man who parked his grey Nissan SUV, with registration number LND 476 EE at about 4.50 pm today (yesterday) Sunday, March 19, 2017 around Adekunle, inward Third Mainland Bridge and jumped into the Lagos lagoon.”
The LASEMA image maker, who identified the man simply as Orji, said: “The vehicle and the driver have been taken to Adeniji Adele Police Station for further investigation, while effort is on going to recover his body from the lagoon.”
The General Manager, LASEMA, Mr. Adesina Tiamiyu, said proper investigation would be conducted on the incident by the appropriate authorities.
A police source, who however, gave the full name of the medical doctor as Allwell Orji, told Daily Sun that the marine police and other relevant agencies made efforts to retrieve the body from the lagoon.
He revealed that the victim’s driver said he was taken unawares, as the medical doctors never gave any sign of distress before the incident.
According to him, the driver said when the man came down, he thought he wanted to urinate, only for him to jump over the rail of the bridge.
“His driver told us that they were coming from church service when the doctor took over the wheels from him and when they got to Third mainland Bridge, the doctor stopped, came down from the vehicle and jumped into the lagoon,” the source said.
He also revealed that the victim’s mother and a pastor came to the scene, wherein the woman identified the car as her son’s.
The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, yesterday visited the scene, in company with Commander, Rapid Response Squad and other management team.
The CP ordered the deployment of drones and boats to the scene, to retrieve the man’s body, it was gathered.
A witness to the suicide last night shared his experience on Instagram.
The lady, who identifies herself as @bimmms24, wrote: “I witnessed the worst thing ever today (yesterday). The owner of this particular car jumped into the lagoon right in front of me. I saw him get out of his car, then jumped. I was directly behind him. I parked and ran as fast as my legs could carry me, but it was too late.
“I wish he had waited a little longer. I wish I was able to stop him. I wish I was about to hold his hands. I wish he could tell me what the problem was. Depression is real. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’m still in shock. I couldn’t control my tears.
“I ran after him. I tried to save him. I called for help. Suicide is not the answer. It’s a pity, a problem shared isn’t a problem solved anymore; it’s a problem gossiped about. We now live in a world where negativity is like 90%.”
In a related development, an unidentified woman also jumped into the lagoon from Maza-Maza Bridge in the Mile 2 area of Lagos.
The woman was however, lucky, as rescuers fished her out before she could drown.
According to a witness, the woman, dressed in a blouse and trousers, was trekking and got to the middle of the bridge, climbed the rail and jumped.
“The thing happened so fast that we could not stop her. However, when she jumped, we called for help, prompting people under the bridge to dive in and rescue her,” said one of the witnesses, who gave his name as Emeka.
When Daily Sun got the the scene, the woman was lying unconscious by the shore of the lagoon, while her rescuers tried to press her bloated stomach to expel the excess water she took in before her rescue.
Adewale, one of those who rescued her, said: “We were under the bridge, when suddenly the woman’s body dropped from the bridge. At first, we thought she was either pushed over or fell over by mistake. We had to jump into the river and went for her. That was how we rescued her.”
What would make people take their lives or attempt to commit suicide? A psychologist, Alex Lickerman, writing in an online site, Psychology Today, identified six things that could make a man or woman attempt suicide.
He wrote: “In general, people try to kill themselves for six reasons:
“They’re depressed: This is without question the most common reason people commit suicide. Severe depression is always accompanied by a pervasive sense of suffering as well as the belief that escape from it is hopeless. The pain of existence often becomes too much for severely depressed people to bear.
“They’re psychotic: Malevolent inner voices often command self-destruction for unintelligible reasons. Psychosis is much harder to mask than depression, and is arguably even more tragic. The worldwide incidence of schizophrenia is one per cent and often strikes otherwise healthy, high-performing individuals, whose lives, though manageable with medication, never fulfill their original promise.
“They’re impulsive: Often related to drugs and alcohol, some people become maudlin and impulsively attempt to end their own lives. Once sobered and calmed, these people usually feel emphatically ashamed. The remorse is often genuine, but whether or not they’ll ever attempt suicide again is unpredictable. They may try it again the very next time they become drunk or high, or never again in their lifetime.
“They’re crying out for help, and don’t know how else to get it. These people don’t usually want to die but do want to alert those around them that something is seriously wrong. They often don’t believe they will die, frequently choosing methods they don’t think can kill them in order to strike out at someone who’s hurt them, but they are sometimes tragically misinformed.
“They have a philosophical desire to die: The decision to commit suicide for some is based on a reasoned decision, often motivated by the presence of a painful terminal illness from which little to no hope of reprieve exists. These people aren’t depressed, psychotic, maudlin, or crying out for help. They’re trying to take control of their destiny and alleviate their own suffering, which usually can only be done in death. They often look at their choice to commit suicide as a way to shorten a dying that will happen regardless.
“They’ve made a mistake: This is a recent, tragic phenomenon in which typically young people flirt with oxygen deprivation for the high it brings and simply go too far. The only defense against this, it seems to me, is education.”