By Fred Ezeh
This story might sound unbelievable to many. To some, it might be the height of foolishness, while others would choose to reserve their comment on the failed relationship that led to a suicide.
Love, they say, is a beautiful thing for mature people, but the reality most times is that the beauty and joy of love depend on how it is handled by the parties involved.
Improper handling of love and emotions has the potential to turn care and companionship, which are some of the benefits of genuine love, to pain and regret.
That was the experience of two young “love birds,” Kingsley and Chidimma recently.
They were both residents of Jikwoyi in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The sad event
Kingsley and Chidimma were said to be madly in love. But neighbours’ statements indicated that the man seemed to love the woman more. He was said to be monitoring the girl’s movement, especially her relationship with other men.
A close neighbour and friend of Kingsley, who preferred anonymity, told Abuja Metro that his friend had complained that his girlfriend of many years had suddenly begun to cheat on him. That, according to the neighbour, might have prompted his close monitoring of Chidimma.
The suspicion and accusations climaxed a few weeks ago when Kingsley was said to have paid an unannounced visit to his girlfriend in her one-room apartment in a densely-populated location opposite Anason Bakery, Jikwoyi, Phase 2, Abuja.
He was said to have caught his lover with another man when he barged into the room. Unable to control his anger, he was said to have confronted the stranger and attacked him.
When he was done with the stranger, Kingsley turned his anger on his girlfriend, to the point of using a sharp object on her face, leaving her with large cut cut.
A witness, who identified himself as Promise, confirmed to Abuja Metro that the attention of the neighbours was drawn to the incident by the screams of the girlfriend, who was in pain as a result of the deep cut.
Promise said that Kingsley immediately took to his heels when he saw the neighbours of the girl who rushed to the scene to intervene.
“He him he took to his heels. But we went after him shouting that he had killed somebody. He moved a few meters away and stopped when he couldn’t run anymore, to confront the people who were after him.
“He warned that no one should come near him or else he would kill himself and whoever comes near. By then, he had armed himself with a sharp kitchen knife that he picked from the girlfriend’s kitchen.
“We begged him, but he insisted that he could afford to see his girlfriend cheat on him after all he had committed to the relationship. He said that he preferred to die than to be faced with the shame of a cheat as girlfriend. We appealed to him not to harm himself but all was fruitless.
“We applied every means to dispossess him of the sharp kitchen knife, but as we pushed harder, he began to stab himself. The more we tried to stop him, the more he stabbed himself. That was how he stabbed himself multiple times until his intestines were out, resulting in his death.
“Regrettably, passers-by and neighbours could have saved his life because he was still breathing for few minutes after he lost energy and dropped down. But every one was afraid that police might misinterpret the case and possibly turn it against the ‘Good Samaritan.’
“We have had similar experience in the past, where someone decided to help an accident victim, domestic violence victim or otherwise, and the police turned the entire thing against the helper. That was why no one was willing to help him to hospital.”
A few hours after the incident, policemen from the Jikwoyi divisional police were invited and they took the corpse away alongside the late Kingsley’s girlfriend who was badly injured.
At Jikwoyi Police Station
The Divisional Police Officer, Salome Jimbes, who confirmed the incident, said the girlfriend of the late Kingsley was kept under police watch for several days before she could regain her freedom on bail.
She said: “Within the period she was with us, lawyers came to facilitate her bail but we insisted on detaining her until we could extract all the information needed for our investigation.”
The Jikwoyi police boss told Abuja Metro that she was surprised that the late Kingsley’s girlfriend could not recall any family or occupational information regarding hr boyfriend, with whom she had been in “love” and co-habited with for a long time.
She also disclosed that the remains of the late Kingsley were still at a mortuary, awaiting any friend or relation that would come lay claim to it.
Neighbours’ reaction
Many neighbours described the suicide as the height of frustration and foolishness.
“Yes, he might love the girl genuinely and couldn’t withstand heartbreak but that was not enough reason for him to take his own life. God and nature will obviously not be happy with him. Now that he is dead, will his sacrifice stop the girl from living her life and possibly cheating tomorrow? The answer is no. So he goofed seriously,” a neighbour said.
Another neighbour, Malam Sani, said the resort to suicide was unwise: “Love is about continuous communication. He should have controlled his emotions and later resolved whatever issue they might have had.
“Remember that he was never married to the girl that was the cause of his death. So there was a limit to the freedom and right he had over her.”