Tragedy struck yesterday in Awka, the Anambra State capital, when a 20 -year old commercial motor-bike operator popularly known as Okada, Mr. Onuigbo Nwode, hanged himself for losing his motorcycle to armed bandits.
Nwode, who hailed from Ezza, in Ebonyi State, relocated to Awka about three years ago and had been using income generated from the business to cater for his family members back home.
It was gathered that the motorcycle was stolen from him at gun point along Zik Avenue at about 1 am yesterday and apparently devastated by the incident, Nwode hung himself one a half hours later.
The body of the deceased have since been removed by the police from his Ichida Road residence at Umudioka, Awka, and deposited in a mortuary.
Another motorcycle operator, who claimed to be a relation of the deceased, said that after the motorcycle was snatched from Nwode, he returned to their house, weeping and looking dejected, adding that they never knew that he was contemplating suicide.
He said: “There were three of us from Ebonyi living in that room and when we saw how he was feeling, we started consoling him and at a time, all of us fell asleep. We never knew he planned to hang himself.
“When I eventually woke up to go and ease myself, I discovered that Nwode was no longer in the room. It was later that I saw something dangling and when I called the attention of our other brother, we flashed a touchlight on the object and discovered that it was the body of Nwode. We then raised an alarm and neighbours started trooping into our house.”
Anambra State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Emeka Chukwuemeka, confirmed the incident and said that investigations had commenced.
