Daniel Anokwuru
Magbo town, a Lagos suburb along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway was recently thrown into mourning when a 30-year-old commercial motorcycle (Okada) rider, simply identified as Oloye, took his own his life after losing the motorcycle given to him on hire purchase.
The Nigerian Xpress gathered that the deceased, until his death was an Okada rider in Magbo. The motorcycle was given to him at the sum of N350,000. He had paid up to N300,000, leaving N50,000 balance. Unfortunately, things became very hard for him. He pleaded for more grace, to enable him to complete the payment, but was still unable to fulfill the terms completely after the grace period elapsed. Then the owner of the motorcycle retrieved it from him. Sadly, out of frustration, he hanged himself inside his one-room apartment at Shop 11, Kumako Street, Magbo.
When The Nigerian Xpress visited the area, he noticed that the compound where the incident took place was still under construction. The only apartment ready was that of the deceased, even as the whole place was deserted. A resident, who identified herself as Kehinde Ayoola, told the reporter that it took two weeks before the Okada rider’s decomposing body was discovered.
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She said that it was the offensive smell that enveloped the whole community that prompted one of the deceased’s friends to force the door open after two weeks search of his whereabouts proved abortive. She added that when the door was forced open, they saw the decomposing body, hanging naked with a rope tied to the ceiling.
“It was around December 3 last year. The Okada people noticed that one of their members was missing. They knew him as Oloye. They started searching for him.
“He had a bike he was riding on hire purchase but we heard that the owner of the bike gave it to him at the sum of N350,000, but he had paid up to N300,000, and was to pay N50,000 balance. However, the owner of the bike retrieved it, as he was not able to pay the balance.
“He was the type that kept to himself. Before his death, he had finished roofing his one room apartment where he stayed alone. Before it was discovered that he had committed suicide, there was offensive smell everywhere. People thought it was a dead animal decomposing in the bush. But when the smell became too offensive to withstand, one of Oloye’s friends in whose house he slept sometimes, came and forced the door to his apartment open, only to discover his decomposing body, hanging naked with a rope tied to the ceiling. The friend who opened the door was too shocked that he fainted and had to be revived.
“His people later came and took the corpse away for burial after they did some traditional rites to appease the gods according to their tradition. If you want to know more, go and ask of Baba Generator he will tell you more,” Ayoola narrated.
When approached in his shop, which is adjacent to the deceased’s house, the man known as Baba Generator, who identified himself as Mr. E.O. Osagie, greeted the reporter with all cheerfulness, but suddenly became sad when the reporter revealed his mission. He said he did not like talking about the matter.
“It was in December, about 3pm when people gathered in our area, and everywhere smelled. I asked what happened; they said Oloye was dead, that he killed himself,” he reluctantly opened up.
Continuing, he said: “Before then, we had been looking for him for two weeks. The Okada riders too were looking for him. The Okada he was using, a Honda product, he got on hire purchase. He had paid almost all the money, remaining little but the owner retrieved the bike from him.
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“Before he died, he told us that he went to Orile to meet his mother and sister to give him money so he could complete the payment.
He said they gave him the money but as he was coming back, some Area Boys beat him up and collected the money. He was lamenting that he was tired, that he had no job and no money to solve his personal problems. We advised him to take life easy, that one day, things might change. But we were surprised when he later killed himself. He was living alone in the building, as he was not married.”
An Okada rider, who identified himself as Olabode Lawal, described the late Oloye, as someone who did not like discussing his problem with anybody.
“We knew Oloye very well. He was one of our members here. When we noticed that he was missing, we searched for him everywhere to no avail. We even reported to the police. He was the type that would never want to discuss his problem with anybody. He was very easy going and gentle. That was why we nicknamed him One Touch.”
When our reporter visited the home of one of the relatives of the deceased, identified as Baba Rilwan, who lives close to the scene, he told our reporter that they had left everything to God. He also disclosed that the deceased had been buried.
