Man hangs self in uncompleted building in Lagos

Residents of Ile-Iwe community in the Meiran
area of Lagos State say they were shocked to
see the dangling body of a stranger in an
uncompleted building in the area.

Some of the residents told PUNCH Metro that
the victim was on Thursday brought down dead
from the rope with which he hung himself.

They added that efforts by the people in the
community and the police to identify him had
proved abortive.

Our correspondent gathered that the
stranger, who wore a white caftan, took his
life between Wednesday night and Thursday
morning after sneaking into the building in the
night of Wednesday.

The incident happened on Lawal Unity Street,
Meiran, Ile-Iwe bus stop. The uncompleted
building is isolated from the rest of the
houses in the area.

A resident, Adebayo Salami, said nobody knew
the man and attempts to find his relatives had
not yielded any result.

He said, "I was called on Thursday morning
and told that somebody had died in a building.

"My initial thought was that it was somebody
living in the area, but when we got there, we
discovered that it was an uncompleted building
and the man was a stranger."

Salami added that the victim might have
committed suicide to cover up a secret or run
away from a consequence.

A community leader, Samuel Oroja, said the
traditional ruler of the community had been
informed of the development and plans were
on to conduct rites to forestall a recurrence.

"I have called some other elders, including the
traditional ruler, to notify them so that we
can know what to do about the corpse.

"Nobody knows the man or where he came
from. We have reported the matter at the
Meiran Police Station.

"What we will do now is to prepare rites and
make sacrifices to forestall a recurrence of
unnatural death like this because this is a bad
sign for the community," he added.

However the Police Public Relations Officer,
Kenneth Nwosu, said the police had identified
the victim as Mosunmola Raphael, a 28-year-
old man.

Nwosu said, "His relatives came to identify
him and they said he had mental problem. His
corpse has been released to the family after
they presented some documents."