14-year-old boy commits suicide in Calabar

A teenager identified as Donald, has allegedly committed suicide by tying a shoe race around his neck.

Naija Latest Gist learnt that the incident happened in Ekondo Street in Calabar, on Saturday afternoon.

The fourteen-year-old boy lived with his grandmother at 49, Ekondo Street in Calabar South.

One of his friends, Eyo, who spoke with Vanguard, revealed that Donald after completing his morning chores that Saturday morning went to buy a cassava meal locally called fufu and that was the last time they heard or saw the boy.
He said, “After going to buy the fufu, nobody heard from him again until about noon when the grandmother called a carpenter to help him bring the boy down from where he was leaning on the wall with a rope on his neck.”

He said the carpenter asked what happened but the woman did not say anything tangible prompting the carpenter to run out of the premises to raise the alarm.

Eyo further stated, “Nobody heard any noise from the compound until the carpenter ran out and raised the alarm and we all went inside the compound. The boys’ legs were on the floor, there was no table or object which the boy climbed on to fix his head on the noose and the string round his neck was just a shoelace.”

He said the police from Atakpa Police Station came in to assess the situation and later went back.

He added, “The police did not touch the boy and others who were called to take the boy down did not touch the body and when the woman was asked to take the boy down she refused.”

Another resident of the street said he is at a loss how the boy could have committed suicide with a shoelace.

He said, “There is no how the boy could tie that tiny rope on his neck to commit suicide without the shoelace cutting”.

He said since the boy died he has been having nightmares and seeing the boy in his dream.

The resident said, “We were very close and since Saturday afternoon when I saw him leaning on that wall with a rope round his neck, each time I sleep, I see him and he keeps asking for justice. All these are happening because the boy is an orphan. His dad and mother are both dead.”