Man Commits Suicide Over Debt

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A transport operator has committed suicide over a debt he owed a local thrift association.

The transporter, Gabriel Agochi, who resided in Agiga in Ogoja, Cross River State, P.M.NEWS gathered, committed suicide when he could not repay the N800,000 he collected from Agiga Ususu Association for his transport business.

On the fateful day, P.M.NEWS gathered, the transporter picked his machete and walked to the backyard of his house where carried out the dastardly act.

His neighbour, simply identified as Jacinta, said when his wife asked him what he wanted to do with the machete, Agochi said he wanted to use it to cut the grass at the backyard.

“It was there he used the machete to cut his throat. When his wife went to the backyard to give him his phone which was ringing, she saw Agochi on the ground bleeding and she shouted for help.”

Agochi was rushed to a hospital but died a few hours later and his body was deposited in the Ogoja General Hospital mortuary.

A friend of the deceased simply identified as Mike, said Agochi had three golf cars but collected  N600,000 from the local thrift association to acquire an additional Golf car for his transport business.

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Mike, a member of the thrift association, explained that Agochi bought the Golf car in anticipation of a boom in transportation business between September and December but heavy rainfalls damaged the Ogoja–Calabar highway and put paid to his dream.

“Two weeks ago, the thrift association told him to pay his debt in the last week of November to plan for Christmas. Agochi made several efforts to raise the money but to no avail,” he said.

Jacinta further disclosed that Agochi called his elder brother who works in Abuja to raise the money but his brother  promised to give him the money at the end of the month.

Jacinta said Agochi told  his brother that if  he failed to give him the money on time, he might not meet him alive.

Commenting on the incident, a police source at the Ogoja Divisional Police Station disclosed: “There is more than meets the eye in that suicide case. A man with three cars who lives in his own house cannot sell one of those to pay his debts but had to cut himself with a machete. We are still investigating the matter any way.”

P.M.NEWS gathered further that the man was buried at the weekend.

—EMMA UNA/Calabar

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