Civil Servant Commits Suicide Over Unpaid Salary

A civil servant at the Abia State Ministry of Lands and Survey, identified simply as De Nwankwo, yesterday committed suicide at his home in Ihe Ndume, Umuahia North Local Government Area over four months unpaid salary.

The development, the man wrote in the note he left behind, had made it difficult for him to live up to his responsibility to his family and he could not bear it anymore. The note reads:

“I have no other place to go, no hope, nothing to give to my children to eat and no salary for the past four months, I am sorry I have to do this.” The note is with the police at the Ehimiri Police Station.

Nwankwo, said to be in his 50s, hanged himself after his wife and three of his four chil-dren had gone to church on Sunday. When they returned from church about 2pm, they discovered the man’s body dangling in the sitting room while the note was on the table.

According to a family source, who did not want his identity disclosed, the late civil servant used to go to extended family members and some friends to solicit financial assistance and raw foodstuffs.

A community leader, who pleaded anonymity, said the body had been deposited at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuahia. But when contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Ezekiel Udeviotu, said the case had not been brought to his table.