An unfortunate end it was for one Mr. Gabriel Agochi of Ndok in
Ishibori, Ogoja Local Government Area of Cross River State when he
allegedly slaughtered himself with a machete because he couldn’t repay a
loan granted him by a local thrift association.
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Agochi
who was said to be in his mid 40s and a transport operator residing in
Agiga in Ogoja Local Government of the state until his death, had a
transport company with a fleet of three golf cars.
It was gathered
that Agochi wanted to take advantage of the ember months to make brisk
money thus he allegedly approached the local thrift association, Agiga
Ususu Association, to collect a loan of N600,000 (six hundred thousand
naira) to enable him add to the number of cars in his fleet.
A member
of the association and close fried of the deceased who gave his name as
Mike said Gabriel “had one golf car with which he was operating his
business but early this year he came to us and got the sum of N600,000
to add with his own and bought Volkswagen golf car.”
He said that
instead of him to repay the N600,000 loan he collected from the thrift
association, he went ahead and bought another golf in September to add
to his fleet of cars in readiness for the December rush.
However,
nature had other plans as the Ogoja-Calabar highway which is already in a
state of pathetic disrepair, was further devastated leading to low
returns from the cars which made it impossible to keep to the terms of
paying back the loan as agreed.
The association it was gathered had
notified him about two weeks ago that it was their tradition to share
their money in the last week of November so that members can plan for
Christmas which is the principal reason for the thrift and that the
interest his loan accrued was N200, 000 making it a total of N800, 000
to be paid to the association.
The deceased reportedly made frantic
efforts to raise the money to no avail and in a final attempt, he called
his elder brother who works in Abuja to come to his rescue, but got a
November ending date for respite.
Gabriel according to sources was
said to have told his brother that if he failed to respond soon, he
might not meet him, a remark which the sources claimed irked his brother
who wanted to know “where he was leaving to.”
But on Tuesday last
week, Gabriel allegedly picked his machete and headed towards the
backyard, when his wife asked him what he wanted to do with the machete,
he reportedly told her that he wanted to clear grass at the back yard.
A
neighbor who gave her name as Jacinta said, “It was there he used the
sharp knife to tear his throat and started to bleed heavily. When his
phone rang and his wife went it to the backyard to give to him that she
saw the man on the ground bleeding and she shouted for help.”
He was rushed to the hospital but died few hours after and his body was deposited at the Ogoja General Hospital mortuary.
“There
is more than meets the eye in that suicide case. Said a police source
in Ogoja Divisional Police Station said. “A man with three cars and
lives in his own house cannot sell one of those to pay his debts but had
to cut himself with a machete. We are still investigating the matter
any way” the source added.
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