Posted by By JOE EFFIONG Uyo on
Sorrow, anger and confusion have enveloped the family of Mr. & Mrs. Okon Bassey Ubong of Atai Ibiaku Itam in Itu Local Government area of Akwa Ibom State. Their third son recently to commited suicide.
Sorrow, anger and confusion have enveloped the family of Mr. & Mrs. Okon Bassey Ubong of Atai Ibiaku Itam in Itu Local Government area of Akwa Ibom State. Their third son recently to commited suicide.
The 25 - year old Idorenyin, a name which ironically means Hope, chose October 10, 2006 to shatter whatever hope his parents had on him and his other three brothers, by hanging himself on a tree beside their family house. Before killing himself, the junior secondary II student, who took a hold decision to return to school after working as a mechanic and as an okada rider, tried to restore some semblance of hope on his family by buying his mother a set of loin cloth (wrapper) a day before the incident.
The distraught mother, Mrs. Akon Okon Bassey, told our correspondent that the young man, who was the third in the family of four boys, never showed any sign that would commit suicide, she said that even in the night the young man committed suicide, they slept in the same room.
Sign of impending calamity
The mother said that Idorenyin presented the cloth to her with some underlying message. He said, 'Mma, collect this cloth as a reward for the trouble you took to raise me. When I was a baby I might have defaced your clothes with my urine and faeces, so take it as the reward for that because I'm going to travel. I asked him where he was traveling to, whether he was leaving school to travel. He replied that whether he could continue schooling or not wasn't the problem, but that I should collect the cloth," she said.
'I didn't know what he meant. So on Monday night, he went into the house to sleep but I was outside de-shelling periwinkles which is my trade. While I was still outside, he came out. I thought he was going to ease himself. If I had known that he was going to commit suicide I would have held unto him and shouted for help. I waited, but didn't see him return to the house, I thought he had gone to the friend's place where he normally stayed in the nearby compound," she said.
The mother said that at dawn, she hurried to attend morning devotion in the church not knowing that the son was hanging dead at the nearby tree. 'It was those who swept the compound who first saw his shoes at the root of the tree and later saw his dead body hanging. I don't know what the problem was," the woman said.
The immediate elder brother, Nsisong, collaborated what the mother said.. 'When he said he was going to travel I went to the mother and complained that my spirit did not like somebody who behaves like a vagrant. I told her mother that since the boy had qualified as a mechanic, he should return to his job after school."
Nsisong said, he too left home early that Tuesday to his electrical installation business only for one of their tenants to accost him at his place of work and ask: 'what would have caused your brother to do such a thing?
'When I asked him what he had done, the tenant replided that he hanged himself. I was shocked, he said." Nsisong said that Idorenyin was never a troublemaker, neither had he ever had problem with anybody. 'If he had any problem, he would have told the mother or even me. We still play pranks at this age like kids. No one feels offended. So this spectacle is strange to me because Idorenyin is one person who will give the other cheek if you slap this side.
Father's Grief:
The father, Mr. Okon Bassey Ubong, who spoke in tears, told our correspondent that the death of Idorenyin was a great loss and embarrassment to him.
'Just two years ago, I sold my land and shared the money equally to the four of them. Each person took N25,000 and it was the money he used to start school. I also gave each of them a room in my house. He rented out his and went to stay with his friends. He has really disgraced me".
It was learnt that a day before committing suicide, Idorenyin had told people that he only collected one year rent and not two years as speculated, as such the mother should be collecting the rent while he would be away.
Our correspondent learnt that the remains of anyone who commits suicide are usually buried at the foot of the free on which they are hanged; that was why Idorenyin's grave was dug by the tree with the body still hanging, while a juju man who supervised the grave-digging, waited to perform the sacrifice with such items, like clay pot, some special green leaves, clay chalk, a live dog, etcetera. He said such would forestall any other suicide in the family.
Police Drama
A drama however, ensured when the police, to which the matter was reported, came to insist that the body should be deposited in the mortuary for a post mortem, a suggestion the elders of the community stoutly kicked against.
'What will be value of that post mortem? will it bring him back alive? This boy chose to end his life this way. So let us bury him today. We don't want to bring more calamities to this family by taking him to mortuary. He is dead; that is final; so let him go and face his God," the family's spokesman said.