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From Emmanuel Adeyemi, lokoja
Shock and disbelief have enveloped people in Kogi State, where a director in the state civil service, Mr Edward Soje, 54, committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree in Lokoja, the state capital.
Eyewitness account said his body was found dangling on a tree behind the mammy market at the Maigumeri barracks of the Nigeria Army Command Record.
Recall that civil servants in the state embarked on industrial action to protest the non-payment of their salaries arrears with some being owed for upwards of 21 months.
A friend of the Soje family hinted that he might have taken his life due to the frustrations orchestrated by non-payment of his salaries coupled with the unsettling news that his wife gave birth to male triplets barely two weeks ago.
Probably overwhelmed by the development and wondering how he would feed the newborns in the face of the parlous state of his finances, Soje decided to end it all by committing suicide.
The source said the family ran from pillar to post to raise money to discharge the wife from a private hospital in Abuja. The couple had been childless until then.
It was gathered that Soje was a Grade Level 16 officer in the Kogi State Teaching Service Commission, who was being owed 11 months arrears of salary at the time he took his life.
Sunday Sun further learnt that Soje hailed from Ogori town in Ogori -Magongo Local Government Area of the state.
Prior to taking his life, Soje had travelled to Abuja and left a suicide note for the wife, who also works in one of the federal ministries.
In the suicide note, he quoted the scripture in Psalm 121:3, where the bible says, “God will not suffer your foot to be moved: He that keepeth you will not slumber. Amen.”
Continuing, he said: “You and the three boys, the God Almighty will keep you and prosper you, amen. I love you.”
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Kogi command, ASP William Aya said that the dangling body of Soje was found on a tree behind the barracks about 5:55 p.m on October 16.
Aya said that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Area D Division received information about the incident from the military intelligence office in the barracks.
“Police moved to the scene, removed the corpse to the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja. Investigation is still ongoing,” Aya said.
The police spokesman said that nothing was found on the man to help trace his address and family.
However, a search party organised by his relations and friends, found his corpse at the morgue of the hospital on Friday, Oct. 20.
Family sources said that Soje had before the incident been going through a lot of financial pressure due to non-payment of his salary for 11 months by the Kogi State Government.
He was among thousands of civil servants being owed between two and 21 months’ salary arrears by the state government.
As a way out, he was said to have sold his only car and a three-bedroom bungalow he was building at Otokiti area of Lokoja.
The building, which was at lintel level, was sold by Soje at a giveaway price of N1.5 million in April to meet urgent family needs, it was gathered.
According to the sources, Soje’s financial woes became compounded when the wife gave birth to a set of triplets through caesarian operation in a private hospital in Abuja on October. 7.
The deceased remained in the hospital to look after the wife and children until Oct. 13, a day before the naming ceremony when he decided to come back to Lokoja.
On getting to Lokoja, Soje went straight to his bank to collect the remaining N30,000 in his salary account with one of the commercial banks and thereafter informed the bank in writing about his decision to close the account.
He immediately left Lokoja for the hospital in Abuja where he rejoined his wife and handed over the N30,000 cash to her.
Then on October 14, two pastors joined Soje and wife and few relatives to perform a brief naming ceremony for the triplets in the hospital.
He later left the hospital on the pretext that he wanted to pick few things from the wife’s apartment in Abuja with a promise to come back quickly.
But Soje did not return for hours and did not pick any of the many calls made to his telephone line, a development, which forced the wife to send somebody to the house to go and ascertain what was happening to him.
The person, on getting to the apartment knocked on the door several times but got no response and decided to call his telephone number.
On hearing the telephone ringing from outside the apartment, the person was said to have knocked several times again but still got no
Response. This made him to seek the assistance of neighbours to force the door open.
When the door was opened, the people were shocked when they saw Soje’s handset placed on a suicide note on the centre table in the sitting room while he was nowhere to be found.
When the wife was informed, she quickly contacted some people to begin a search for him in Abuja while relations and friends in Lokoja were also informed of the development.
Efforts made to locate him did not yield fruit until relations decided to visit hospitals in Lokoja. The decision paid off eventually on Friday, October 20 when the corpse of Soje was found in the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Lokoja.
A member of the family said that the management of the hospital explained to them that police brought in Soje’s corpse after finding it dangling on a tree.
A member of the family, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the late Soje as a “very quiet and lovable human being.”
He said that some members of the family have been sent to Abuja to break the news to the wife and refused to answer further questions.
