BY Inusa Ndahi, Maiduguri
Borno State Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Aliyu has confirmed the death of a Senior Steward to Governor Kashim Shettima’s, Mr. John Achagwa who committed suicide at the Government House, Maiduguri, the state capital less than 24 hours to the Governor’s handing over power to Governor elect, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum.
John Achagwa aged 67, who had retired from active service since 2013 was reengaged by the present administration, but hanged himself on a Neem tree at the back of the Presidential Lodge, Government House on Tuesday afternoon.
It is not clear why the man decided to take his life but his colleagues said he has maintained unusual quietness since he resumed work today.
“He didn’t utter a word since morning. He just kept to himself. We were together till about 2pm until he suddenly disappeared,” one of his colleagues said.
Men of the state Fire Service and security personnel were immediately mobilised to the scene of the incident to bring down the victim from the tree. It was the first time such incident would occur in the state House.
Sources said, Achagwa has economic problem being a Steward to Governor Shettima, other sources maintained that he had lingering family issue with one of his daughter, name withheld.
But briefing journalists at the Government House after the incident, the Police Commissioner said, It is unfortunate for a person like late Achagwa who was living comfortable life to commit suicide less than 24 hours before Shettima will bow out of power.
His words: ” from the preliminary investigation at our disposal, this unfortunate incident that happened, it is difficult for person to preempt what actually has instigated Achagwa who is a family man to hang himself.
“This is person who was living a comfortable life, I learnt he was government worker here before he retired, and government reengaged him, he has his personal house of his own and a good car, normally, if he had economic problem, he would have sold the car or the house. But sometimes, like in our profession, we have to go down to ask from the family what was really the issues on the ground, then at the end of the day, we would be able to come out with exact reason for somebody of his age commit suicide.
” May be is possible he would have told his family today that I may not be coming back home again woo…. May be 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 determines to unravel what cause him to commit suicide. I pray God to grant eternal soul to the deceased and the family to bear the irreparable loss,”CP Aliyu said.