Security officials prevent jobless graduate from committing suicide

Security Official

Omotayo who had gone to Akwa Ibom state to seek employment hoping that his services as a trained mechanical engineer would be needed having heard of the infrastructural development happening in the state, was greatly disappointed as he was not absorbed by any company in the state.

Frustrated by his inability to secure a job in the last ten years since he graduated from the university, Omotayo yesterday morning went to the Akwa Ibom State Prison Services asking prison officials to shoot him dead or put him in prison where he could rot and die. Continue...

A prison official who craved anonymity said when Omotayo came into the prison premises looking well dressed with a tie on, he ran towards them asking that they shoot him that he is tired of living. The prison officers who immediately cocked their gun, listened more to what he was saying.

"The next thing he said was ‘shoot me, shoot me, I want to die, I am tired of this world’ The prison official said.

Omotayo was later overpowered by the police, who counseled him and forced him into a bus heading towards the Ibom Plaza roundabout.

A prison officer, who craved anonymity, told our correspondent that they saw him – well dressed and wearing a tie – running towards them. He added that his action forced them to become alert with their guns.

He said, “The next thing he said was ‘shoot me, shoot me, I want to die, I am tired of this world’. He added that otherwise, we should allow him to enter and die inside the prison.”

The official stated that Omotayo was later overpowered by the police, who counselled him and forced him into a bus heading towards the Ibom Plaza roundabout.

An eyewitness, Mr. Effiong Bassey, said Omotayo jumped from the bus into the major road for other vehicles to run over him.

Lying on the main road leading to Akwa Ibom Government House, It took a while for policemen to get him out of the road. He insisted that he must put an end to his poverty-stricken life by committing suicide.

Omotayo told newsmen, “There is no state that I have not gone to in search of a job in the past 10 years. I came to Akwa Ibom because this is my last hope because of the stories of Governor Godswill Akpabio and his uncommon transformation.

“I came with the hope that with what is going on in the state, getting a job would be easy so that I can begin to be a man. But since I came, I discovered that many people from Akwa Ibom are also crying because of poverty and joblessness.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, Akwa Ibom State Command, Mr. Etim Dickson, promised to get back to our correspondent once he had confirmed the story from the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area.