A 67-year-old retiree, Mr. Okon Edet Iwang, hanged himself
in front of his room at 13B, Ekpo Iso Lane, Ikot Ansa in Calabar Municipality
on Tuesday. Mr. Edet, who hailed from Obot Akara, Ukposin Atai in Akwa Ibom
State, was said to have been suffering from diabetes for close to three years,
but was gradually recovering before the suicide.
A neighbour, who pleaded anonymity, told Vanguard: “Before
going to church on Sunday, I saw him and when I also came back at about
10:30p.m. we greeted. I was shocked when I woke up this morning (yesterday) to
see his lifeless body dangling.”
The neighbour said Iwang used the clothesline residents use
to dry their clothes to hang himself in front of his room, adding “he was
recovering from his sickness because the diabetic sore on his leg was healing
very fine. We are still in shock that Ette Aniette, as he is popularly known,
could muster such courage. He was a very peaceful man.”
The source also
hinted that Ette Aniete, who retired from Industrial Trust Fund, ITF, was still
receiving his pension and was even re-engaged on a contract basis before he was
finally paid off due to his deteriorating health.
According to the source, “he slumped sometime ago and went
into coma, which lasted for about three months. He was paid off after he came
back from the hospital. The sickness affected his eyes because he started developing
partial blindness and I think depression also started setting in. We had to
call his son, Aniette, to come and stay with him. His wife had left him during
the peak of his illness and before that he lost one of his children. We believe
all these must have contributed to his decision to commit suicide. “We called
the police immediately and they took his corpse away.”
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