Oil dealer, another commit suicide in Ebonyi

A popular oil dealer in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, identified simply as Chima, has reportedly committed suicide.

This was as a 22-year-old man, Ogonna Obaji of Umuezeukwu community, Onicha Local Government Area of the state, also committed suicide.

Chima allegedly committed the act in his office at Presco Campus Junction of the Ebonyi State University.

The deceased, the son of an Anambra State petroleum dealer who died two years ago, took over the firm identified as Chima Petroleum Resources, to manage.

The business was said to have suffered a setback, which made him to appeal to his mother to help him secure a loan to revive the firm.

Sources said Chima’s mother did not oblige him, forcing him to commit suicide.

Another account had it that Chima had taken the loan but was unable to pay back, which made him uncomfortable.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Chris Anyanwu, confirmed the incident.

Anyanwu, however, said he had not received details of the matter.

The PPRO promised to release the details after full investigation by the police.

When our correspondent visited one of the filling stations of the deceased, it was shut and deserted.

In the Umuezeukwu incident, Obaji reportedly hung himself at Ogbanja village square where the people usually gather to discuss issues affecting the community.

According to his mother, Nkpuma Nwanjoku, Obaji, popularly called Best, left secondary school three years ago and moved to Lagos to join his brother in business but later developed a mental problem.

She said her son had been trying to take his life with knife and was saved several times.

The woman added that she went to the farm to harvest cassava but when she returned she could not find him.

She said: “I left home to harvest cassava in the farm. I left Ogonna with his father in the house and when I returned home, I could not see him.

“I started looking for him and raised the alarm which attracted our people. They started to begin to look for him. We searched for him but later saw him dangling on a tree.”

The father of the deceased, Job Obaji, who is blind, called on the youth not to follow in the footsteps of his son by committing suicide.