32-year-old woman hangs self in Lagos neighbourhood

32-year-old woman hangs self in a Lagos neighborhood
Kunle AKINRINADE
The huge crowd that gathered at 11, Hakeem Alli Street, Ayobo,Lagos State on Saturday, May 16,2011 which coincided with the presidential election was rather unusual.
The building was not a polling unit and the mass of people were not voters but shell-shocked sympathizers. It was a scene of a bizarre incident, hence, residents abandoned the voting centres to catch a glimpse of the dangling remains of Sarafat Adewunmi Azees who committed suicide by hanging inside her one-bedroom apartment.
At the entrance of her apartment was a pair of slippers belonging to the deceased while at the corner of her room was her cosmetic kits and her voter card. The 32 year-old, Iseyin,Oyo State born beautician according to investigation was said to have returned from work on Thursday, April 14 without an inkling that she was going to abbreviate her life.
On Friday, 15,2011 her hordes of customers were said to have stormed her residence as usual to have their faces beautified. They later became confused agitated after knocking on her door without any response. It was in that situation that an unidentified neighbour at about 8pm that day went to the back of the building and peeped through the window of her room before discovering her dangling body.
The Divisional Police Officer of Ayobo Police Station Julius Isijola, a Chief Supritendent of Police(CSP) who led his men to the scene of the incident promised to launch a full scale investigation into the incident, assuring that ‘ police will ensure a proper investigation’
A neighbour who asked not be mentioned narrated how it all happened. She said: ”The deceased was an unassuming person and she always kept to herself. She returned from work last Thursday and she greeted everyone as usual before going into her room. The next day, her customers started coming to have their finger nails fixed while some wanted to buy some items from her but they became worried upon knocking on her door without any response”
“When after many hours of waiting she did not come out of her room, someone suggested that we check her room through the window and that was how we discovered her dangling body tied to the ceiling fan. It was such a gory sight, hence, we raised the alarm to alert neigbours and residents”
Investigation revealed that the deceased popularly called Iya Shakirat moved into the house after her home at the Ayobo Residential was among many others demolished by the Lagos State government.The development subsequently led to separation with her husband and she was said to have squatted with friends for sometime before she subsequently moved into the building where she hung herself.
The distraught owner of the building Mr. Adedigba Adekunle, described the deceased as a very quiet person and an industrious woman.
Hear him: ”She was a very quiet person and she was not a troublesome tenant. She moved into this house about a year ago claiming that her house was among the buildings demolished by the Lagos State government at the Ayobo Residential Scheme. She was into so many things; she was a beautician, cosmetologist and she renders laundry services to residents”
“I have never seen her husband before; they probably parted after their house was demolished. I cannot exactly tell if her unfortunate action was due to financial hardship or not because her rent was due next month. She has an eight year old daughter called Shakirat who lives with her estranged husband”
“But more importantly I think she had carefully executed her own death judging by the way she arranged her room. For example, a voter card bearing her photograph and biodata was place on the floor while she also wrote the telephone numbers of some family members on a piece of paper”
He explained further that futile efforts were made to contact some of her family members including her husband.
Hear him:” There were some telephone numbers she wrote on a piece of paper and when we called some of them they declined response. Even when we called her husband too he asked us to leave him alone.We`are awaiting police report and we have called the Lagos State Ambulance service to come remove her corpse after necessary propitiation is offered because this is an abominable incident ”
In his words, the chairman of the Ogoluwade Community Development Association, Pastor Johnson Samayi said:” It’s just unfortunate that the woman took her life. We don’t really know what the motive behind her action is all about. But from the point of religion, I know that certain evil forces must have led her to embrace suicide. As a pastor, I have listened to testimonies by people about some evil voices asking them to jump into the sea”.
“I want to encourage residents to be prayerful and to always share their problems with men of God who can intercede on their behalf with prayers and counsel them with word of God”
The incident prompted a resident who simply identified himself as John to add a spiritual angle to the development on the strength of series of similar incident in the community in recent time.
He said: “We really need prayer in this community because a lot of this kind of incident has happened in this area in the last few weeks. Only a few weeks ago, a man said to be mentally challenged jumped into a well while another woman only a few days ago died during child birth”