Police Rescue Suicidal Woman From Jumping Into Lagoon

For the third time in a week, drowning-related suicide has reverberated in Lagos with the attempted suicide of a woman identified by police as Taiwo Momoh prevented on Friday when she attempted to jump into the lagoon from the third mainland bridge.

Fortunately for her, eagle-eyed policemen on patrol noticed her on time before she could take the fatal plunge.

On Sunday, Allwell Orji, a medical doctor, had performed a similar act when he ordered the driver of his SUV taking him to a meeting of his association in Victoria Island to stop on the same bridge, before he opened the door and jumped into the Lagoon. His remains has since been recovered by Marine Police and handed over to his family.

Orji’s case was being solved when fishermen from the lagoon into which she had jump after lazing around the area endlessly fished out a woman in Masa Maza area of Mile 2, in Lagos.

Briefing journalists on Momoh’s case, Commissioner of Police, Lagos Command, Fatai Owoseni, said policemen saw the woman in a taxi, which she told to stop on getting to the third mainland bridge, where she attempted to jump into the waters.

Alarmed by the development, Owoseni said he has ordered his men to begin the patrol of bridges across the state to prevent other cases of suicide.

“She attempted suicide by trying to jump into the lagoon around Oworonshoki inwards mainland on third mainland bridge, but she was rescued,” he said, adding that though suicide was an offense under the law, the police would do everything to assist the women regain her balance. He disclosed that, from interrogation, she was suffering from depression occasioned by mounting debts.

Momoh who later told reporters that she was a dealer in textile materials, said she was owning her foreign supplies millions of Naira and having suffered the double tragedy of being burgled and duped, she was at her wits end to make ends meet and decided to take her life.

Owoseni appealed to people facing challenges to explore every channel to seek counsel for their troubles rather than resort to the extreme measures such as suicide, which would further compound problems for relatives and the society at large.