Kehinde’s body dangling from the ceiling with his trousers wet with urine. Inset is the close shot of the hook to which he tied the rope.
When the news of suicide committed by an undergraduate,Kehinde Akintunde, broke on Sunday last week, many people who heard it found it shocking, not because suicide was a strange occurrence but the circumstances which surrounded Kehinde’s act, as well as the note he left behind, were incomprehensible, especially to his family members who never believed such could happen in their family, not to talk of their smiling, easy-going, brilliant child taking such a non-reversible step. It was suicide extraordinaire.
Kehinde, a 400 level student of Civil Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Akure was in Lagos State where he was undergoing industrial training, which was part of his course requirements. With a twin brother who was also doing his youth service, Kehinde found it convenient staying in their sister’s house in Lagos. He had left the house in the morning of Friday, August 19, 2011 as usual, bidding farewell as he stepped out, giving everyone the impression that he was going to the place where he was doing his industrial training.
Not too long afterwards, he received a call from his twin brother who wanted to know where he was. “I am about boarding a bus to Yaba”, Kehinde was reported to have replied. Unknown however to any soul, except himself, Kehinde had other plans that would forever put a demarcation between him and his loved ones forever.
He boarded a vehicle to Ibadan and went to Apata area where he walked into an hotel around 12noon and checked in. He was with a back pack and held a bottle of water. He made enquiries about the cost of the rooms and paid for one. As he spoke with the receptionist who booked him in, he was full of smiles and did not betray any emotion or reveal what his intention would soon be. After he had been handed the key to Room 13, he climbed the stairs and made for the room.
Around 11.30a.m. on Saturday, August 20, the receptionist who was on duty noticed that the key to Room 13 was not among other keys and when the receptionist on duty the previous day resumed duty later in the afternoon, she pointed her attention to this. The duo quickly reported to the hotel manager who told them to hold on as it was possible that the guest forgot to drop the key or still had the intention of spending one more night.
When the situation was still same a couple of hours later, the manager decided to inform the Director of the hotel, in whose possession the spare keys of the
hotel rooms were. The director reportedly ordered that the spare key should be used in opening the room but all their efforts yielded no result as none of the keys used in testing the door made it give way.
At about 6.30p.m. the owner of the hotel directed that a carpenter be brought in to break the door open so that another guest could be lodged in. However, as the carpenter went about his job, he was said to have noticed that the door was bolted from behind. A suspicion arose in him and he called the attention of the manager to this. Since they had no choice than to break the door open, the manager told him to continue.
Even if they were expecting something serious to have happened, the sight they beheld was beyond their comprehension. They found the body of their guest, Kehinde, hanging from the hook of a ceiling fan. Stifling the scream that wanted to escape from their throats, the hotel management quickly put a call across to the police at Apata Division. Detectives from the station were sent to the hotel and when they searched the room, they found some belongings of the deceased including a modem, a wallet containing N5, 245, three handsets, a bag, a school identification card, a voter card, some textbooks and a comprehensive suicide note which was written on seven pages of a small jotter.
Scrolling through his phone, the police were able to get Kehinde’s sister’s number and as a way of prompting their steps quickly without raising suspicion, she was told to come to Ibadan as her brother, Kehinde, had been arrested for robbery. Very sure that her brother could never be involved in such, she called her uncle who resides in Ibadan, intimating him of what she learnt. Also convinced that his nephew’s arrest could have been a case of mistaken identity, the uncle went to the police station at Apata that very night but was told to report back in the morning.
Next morning, Sunday August 21, the uncle and policemen went to the hotel and it was there that the news of Kehinde’s death was broken to him. The uncle, shocked with disbelief, went limp. It was as if he was dreaming. After regaining some composure, he was invited to come and see the body but the uncle shivered, saying he would not be able to stand seeing the dead body of a boy he was so close to right from childhood.
Shortly after, Kehinde’s parents who had left Lagos for Ibadan after being told the story of robbery, were brought to the hotel where the news was also broken to them. The mother who had all the while suspected that something terrible must have happened to her beloved son, with the way everyone went hush hush, let out an exclamation immediately the news was broken to her by some clergymen who were invited by the uncle. Crying, the woman who should be close to 60 years lamented how she had suffered over the deceased, asking God rhetorically, “My God, why did you allow this to happen to me?”
Of all that happened, what baffled the family members, police and journalists who were present was the content of the suicide note left behind by Kehinde, which gave no cogent reason for his action, except a portion of it which implied that he might have suffered depression. He had asked his brother who is medical doctor not to bother to research on the causes of depression while also saying in another portion of the note that for those who might think he was depressed, and should have been placed on medication, the medication would have only added to his problem.
In the suicide note, Kehinde addressed all his family members and gave each a parting message. He also expressed his philosophical views on some issues.
Finding the contents of the note unbelieveable, the uncle said Kehinde had no reason to do what he did. “This boy was a genius. He cleared his WASCE result at one sitting with nine distinctions. He gained admission thereafter and his CGP in school placed him on Second Class Upper. Even his doctor brother used to consult him on some areas in his field of medicine. I could recollect that about age 10, Kehinde’s father bought about six books and brought them home, telling the children to go and read and narrate the contents to him. Kehinde had immediately answered his dad that he had read all the books and went ahead to narrate the stories therein.
“At a young age too, whenever he played computer game with his sibling and they became stuck at a point, he would wake up in the night and continued where they stopped. He would eventually solve the problem and call my attention to it so that I could be his witness in the morning when he would relate his feat to others. He was always smiling and I was close to all of them, or so I thought. I can’t just comprehend what has happened”.
Kehinde’s mother while lamenting the loss of her son wondered aloud how she would cope with his loss. “Whenever I had problems that I could not solve with my patients, it was Kehinde that I would call to give me a clue. My God, why did you allow this to happen to me, with the way I serve you? From day one, I had been suffering over this child. As a baby, he had diarrhoea and was very weak. I had to fix an infusion set into his vein while I was also driving. Anyway, I will not deny you (God)but you must avenge the enemies who did this”, she wailed. Her husband who was also weeping profusely tried to console his wife saying “Please my wife, God will comfort us. This does not mean that God has forsaken us”.
While many were saying that the young man must have suffered depression without it being noticed by family and friends, others believed that those who would too much on the quiet side could be going through things that would be hidden from others while they are be seen as being ‘gentle’ or ‘easy-going’.
Speaking on the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer in Oyo State, ASP Femi Akinlawon told Sunday Tribune that the remains of the deceased had been deposited in the mortuary at State Hospital, Ring Road for autopsy after which it would be released to the family for burial. However , Sunday Tribune learnt that the deceased had been buried on Wednesday, August 24.
Nigerian Tribune
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