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10-year-old boy commits suicide

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Written by Oluwatoyin Malik Sunday, 25 September 2011
RESIDENTS of Alajiki Street, Apata Area in Ibadan, Oyo State, were thrown into confusion and sorrow on Thursday when the body of a 10-year-old primary six pupil, Segun Omotayo, was found hanging in a room inside a dilapidated building beside his parents’ residence.
According to information gathered, Segun, who was a pupil of a primary school at Apata, returned from school that afternoon and thereafter went to the neighbourhood with his friends to watch home video after taking his lunch.
He reportedly came back home and went inside the dilapidated building which once served as home to his family before it was vacated when a part of it collapsed during a heavy rain and part of the roof also got blown off.
Segun’s mother, Mrs Omotayo, who had converted part of the dilapidated building to a poultry and also had a grinding machine in front of it, started looking for Segun around 7.30 p.m. with the intention of giving him some chores to do.
When she checked their apartment and did not see him, the woman decided to check the abandoned building, where the family still had some of their belongings in a room.
Her search eventually led her to the room where she found Segun’s body dangling from the ceiling while the chair he climbed to commit the act was found lying on its side.
The woman raised the alarm and neighbours trooped out to behold the shocking sight.
The matter was reported at Apata police station on Friday morning and the Divisional Police Officer, SP Ganiyu Ali dispatched some detectives to the scene.
The corpse was brought down from the ceiling while its photographs were taken.
The boy did not leave any suicide note but some people suspected that the boy must have been on an adventure as a result of the scenes he might have watched from the film he went to watch with friends.
However, a police source said a foul play was being suspected as a blood stain was found on the deceased’s chest.
The police image maker in Oyo State, ASP Femi Okanlawon confirmed the story, saying the boy’s parents and some witnesses had been invited by the police to help in the investigations towards unravelling the cause of the deceased’s action.