By Athan Agbakwuru, Owerri
A man in his mid sixties, Mr Kenneth Ekeh from Ovuakali village of Umuekwune Community in Ngor Okpala LGA, Imo State last Sunday committed suicide by hanging himself in his private room after members of his family had gone to church.
The deceased, a father of five children, was said to have hung himself that fateful Sunday morning apparently to evade prosecution over alleged arson and attempt to commit murder.
Nigerian Pilot reliably gathered that late Kenneth Ekeh had about a fortnight ago attempted to kill his wife by locking her up in the house, poured fuel on the building and finally set it on fire.
The woman who raised alarm that attracted people managed to escape with bruises as a result of the burns she sustained in the inferno before she was rescued by a male member of the family
A member of the victim’s family, who preferred anonymity, told our correspondent that Mr Ekeh’s in-laws who were irked by his dastardly act reported the matter to the Ngor Okpala Divisional Police headquarters, at Umuneke Ngor.
The source further disclosed that Ekeh was accordingly arrested but later granted bail last Friday after preliminary interrogation and was asked to report back to police for necessary action this Tuesday before he took his own life on Sunday.
Following the incident, the family members reported the suicide to the police in Ngor Okpala and operatives of the division came and brought the flinging corpse down and took it to the mortuary of Ngor Okpala General Hospital, Umuneke Ngor.
Efforts to elicit reactions from the police proved abortive as the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, and the Imo Command Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, ASP Henry Okoye could not be reached via phone before filing this story.
