Okada rider commits suicide in Ibadan

Residents of Eyinni High School  at Orita Challenge area of Ibadan were, on Saturday, thrown into confusion when the body of a resident of house 13, one Adeniyi David Adebayo, was found dangling from the ceiling of his room.
The 39-year-old okada rider was reportedly discovered at about 10a.m. by another okada rider who came to see him.
Sunday Tribune gathered that the deceased’s colleague met his room door slightly opened, which he pushed when there was no response to his discreet knock.
On sighting the lifeless body, the colleague, whose identity could not be ascertained, was said to have raised the alarm which attracted the landlady of the house and other tenants.
The landlady was said to have reported the incident at Orita Challenge divisional police headquarters, which prompted the Divisional Police Officer, Mr Chukwudi Chime, and other senior police officers to visit the scene.
However, there was controversy among those who saw the dangling body as they insinuated that the way it was positioned was suspicious.
This was because the deceased was found with his legs in a carton of LG television which had some of his clothes inside.
A sash usually worn by members of a white garment church was used as a noose, but a close look at the body of the deceased showed that his tongue did not protrude, neither did he urinate or defecate as is known with suicide victims.
Many onlookers also wondered whether the carton was strong enough to sustain his weight while he must have been fixing the noose while they also pointed out that there was no sign of struggling after he must have kicked the carton.
It was learnt that Adebayo packed into the house in May, 2012, after he relocated to Ibadan from Ife, Osun State, where he was trading in timber, when his business collapsed.
His wife reportedly left him in November, 2012 over a complaint of not being taken care of by the deceased, with their two-year-old daughter named Moyinoluwa.
Adebayo was also said to have had three children from a previous union before marrying his last wife.
His elder sister who later arrived the scene told Sunday Tribune that her brother bought a motorcycle on hire purchase but could not fulfil the terms of payment.
This, she said, prompted the owner of the motorcycle to demand for the return of the bike to him, adding that when the deceased called her four days before his death to intimate her, she told him to return the bike as the owner demanded.
She added that the owner still called her brother on Friday, a day before his death, raining curses on him, even after the okada had been returned to him.
Lamenting the sorrow that Adebayo’s death would cause their parents, the woman said that the deceased stayed with him when he first relocated to Ibadan, before he rented his own apartment.
The deaceased’s almost bare room had just a mattress, a television set, DVD player, a fan, an iron, a stove, pots and a helmet.
Sango worshippers were called to poerform some rituals before the body would be taken to mortuary while the family pleaded that the body should be released to them for burial.
Confirming the story, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr Clement Adoda, said that the corpse had been released to the family.
TRIBUNE