Man cuts his throat with cutlass after failing to pay N800,000 debt

It was a sad tragic end for one Mr. Gabriel Agochi
of Ndok in Ishibori, Ogoja Local Government Area
of Cross River State who allegedly slaughtered
himself over his inability to repay a loan collected
from a local thrift association.
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 three golf cars in it fleet.
It was gathered that in a bid to make brisk money
during the ember month, he allegedly
approached the local thrift association, Agiga
Ususu Association to collect loan to enable him
buy additional Volkswagen golf car to beef up his
fleet of cars.
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 (six hundred thousand
naira) 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.
It was gathered that as a result of the rains that
devastated the Ogoja –Calabar highway, there
was 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 told 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 it was gathered made several
efforts to raise the money but to no avail so he
called his elder brother who works in Abuja to
come to his rescue, but his brother was said to
have told him to tell the association that he was
going to send him the money at the end of the
month.
Gabriel according to sources was said to have told
his brother that if he failed to respond soon, he
might not meet him, a statement which the
sources said 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.
A police source in Ogoja Divisional Police Station
said “There is more than meets the eye in that
suicide case. 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”.
Source: Vanguard

Uche says "what a pity"