Outgoing Borno State governor’s steward commits Suicide

An official steward to Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, has allegedly committed suicide at the Government House, Maiduguri. The steward, identified as John Achagwa, allegedly hanged himself on a Neem (Dongoyaro) tree at the back of the Presidential Lodge, Government House, yesterday afternoon. It is not clear why the man decided to take his life, but his colleagues said he had maintained unusual quietness since he resumed work yesterday. Suicide One of them said: “He didn’t utter a word since morning. He just kept to himself. We were together till about 2p.m. until he suddenly disappeared.” Men of the state Fire Service and security personnel were immediately mobilised to the scene of the incident to bring down the corpse from the tree. Meanwhile, Borno State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Aliyu, has confirmed the incident. John Achagwa aged 67, who retired from active service in 2013 was re-engaged by the present administration, until he hanged himself yesterday afternoon. Briefing journalists at the Government House after the incident, the Police Commissioner said it was unfortunate for a person such as late Achagwa, who was living a comfortable life, to commit suicide less than 24 hours before Shettima will bow out of power. His words: “From preliminary investigation, this unfortunate incident is difficult for one to pre-empt what actually has instigated Achagwa, who was a family man, to hang himself. How I will govern Lagos – Sanwo-Olu(Opens in a new browser tab) “This is a person who was living a comfortable life. I learned he was a government worker here before he retired, and government re-engaged him. He has his personal house and a good car. Normally, if he had economic problem, he would have sold the car or the house. “However, sometimes in our profession, we have to go down to ask from the family what was really the issues on ground, then at the end of the day we would be able to come out with exact reason for somebody of his age to commit suicide. “Maybe it is possible he would have told his family that he may not be coming back home again. Maybe there was a quarrel or misunderstanding. But I can assure you that investigation has started and we will get to the root cause of the matter at hand. “If the family said we should allow for autopsy, fine. But we, the Police, are determined to unravel what caused him to commit suicide. I pray God to grant his soul eternal rest and the family strenght to bear the irreparable loss.”

Vanguard