Daybreak, Politics, Entertainment, Sport

Tag: suicide

  • WHO Unveils Campaign to Stop Suicide in Nigeria, Others

    WHO Unveils Campaign to Stop Suicide in Nigeria, Others

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has kicked off a campaign to raise awareness and spur action for suicide prevention in the African region, which according to it, has the world’s highest rates of death by suicide.

    According to it, around 11 people per 100,000 per year die by suicide in the African region, higher than the global average of nine per 100,000 people.

    This is due in part to insufficient action to address and prevent the risk factors, including mental health conditions which currently affect 116 million people, up from 53 million in 1990, a statement by WHO says.

    Consequently, ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10, WHO launched a social media campaign aimed at reaching 10 million people across the region.

    It is to raise public awareness and galvanise the support of governments and policymakers to increase focus and funding for mental health programming, including suicide prevention efforts.

    Such efforts include equipping health workers to better support those dealing with suicidal thoughts and educating people who may experience these thoughts on where to go for help.

    As well as sensitising the public on how to identify and help those in need and to help tackle the stigma associated with suicide, epilepsy, mental health conditions and alcohol and drug abuse.

    The 2022 World Mental Health Day is being marked under the theme “Make Mental Health and Well-Being for All a Global Priority”.

    It is to draw attention to the importance of mental health care and the need for better access to health services.

    WHO said the African region is home to six of the 10 countries with the highest suicide rates worldwide.

    According to it, the common means of suicide in the region are hanging and pesticide self-poisoning and to a lesser extent drowning, use of a firearm, jumping from a height or medication overdose.

    Studies show that in Africa for each completed suicide, there are an estimated 20 attempted ones.

    WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said: “Suicide is a major public health problem and every death by suicide is a tragedy. Unfortunately suicide prevention is rarely a priority in national health programmes.

    “Significant investment must be made to tackle Africa’s growing burden of chronic diseases and non-infectious conditions such as mental disorders that can contribute to suicide.

    “Mental health is integral to wholesome health and well-being yet far too many people in our region who need help for mental health conditions do not receive it.

    “It’s time for radical change.

    “Ongoing efforts by countries should be reinforced and broadened to make mental health care a public health priority in the African region,’’ Moeti said.

    Mental health problems account for up to 11 per cent of the risk factors associated with suicide.

    In Africa, underinvestment by governments is the greatest challenge to adequate mental health service provision.

    On average governments allocate less than 50 US cents per capita to mental health. Although it is an improvement from 10 US cents in 2017, it is still well below the recommended US$ 2 per capita for low-income countries. Additionally, mental health care is generally not included in national health insurance schemes.

  • SUICIDE: Lifeless body found hanging from mango tree in Lagos community

    SUICIDE: Lifeless body found hanging from mango tree in Lagos community

    By Joyce Babayeju

    An unidentified middle-aged man was, in the early hours of Wednesday, found hanging from a tree in an apparent suicide, on 1st Avenue, Festac, Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, opposite a popular hotel, where commercial sex workers hang out.

    The remains of the victim, who had become bloated with liquid substance dripping from it, was still hanging from a rope tied to a mango tree on Thursday morning till about 10am, when it was later evacuated by the authorities.

    When Vanguard visited the scene of the suspected suicide, people were in groups chatting and wondering what could have pushed the man to hang himself.

    A POS operator in the area said the body had been hanging there since Wednesday morning.

    “The local government officials and the police didn’t consider the well being of residents in the area. That is why they abandoned the corpse for two days.

     “When I came to my stand yesterday, I met many people at the scene with the man dangling from the tree.

    “But no one could confirm the actual time of death and nobody could remove the noose from the man’s neck for fear of the police.

    “When I came today he was still hanging from the tree and his body had become swollen.”

    After the police recovered the corpse and took it to a mortuary, some residents were seen removing some logs of dried woods underneath the mango tree.

    Contacted, the spokesperson of Lagos State Police Command, CSP Adekunle Ajisebutu, said he would get back with a reaction.

    At the time of filing this report, he was yet to do so.

  • Police thwarts lady’s suicide attempt in Lagos

    Police thwarts lady’s suicide attempt in Lagos

    Operatives of the Rapid Respond Squad have prevented a yet-to-be-identified lady from committing suicide in the Iyana Oworo area of Lagos State.

    PUNCH Metro gathered that the lady, who claimed to have been undergoing a series of torture at home, reportedly ran away to commit suicide on the Third Mainland Bridge.

    A dispatch rider, who saw the lady, walking suspiciously around the Iyana Oworo end of the bridge, alerted the operatives.

    A Facebook post made by the agency revealed that the officers restrained her after being alerted.

    The lady was said to have been taken to the police station as efforts were on to contact her family.

    The post read, “Officials of Rapid Response squad on patrol of Third Mainland Bridge this afternoon stopped a lady from committing suicide by jumping into the lagoon.

    “She was attempting to jump into the lagoon outward Iyana Oworo end of the bridge when the officers restrained her.

    “The lady in a light conversation revealed that ‘I was beaten at home, that is why I ran away to commit suicide’.

    “The officers’ attention was drawn to the lady by a dispatch rider before racing to the scene to restrain her from jumping into the lagoon.

    “She has been conveyed to Iyana Oworo police division, where efforts are in progress to contact family members.”

  • Spain Set To Legalise Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide

    Spain Set To Legalise Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide

    Spain’s parliament will give final approval to a law legalising euthanasia Thursday, becoming one of the few nations to allow terminally-ill or gravely-injured patients to end their own suffering.

    The legislation, which will take effect in June, follows growing public pressure generated by several high-profile cases, including that of Ramon Sampedro whose plight was immortalised in the Oscar-winning 2004 film “The Sea Inside”.

    Speaking to AFP, Ramona Maneiro, a friend of Sampedro’s who helped him die, hailed the move as a victory “for those who can benefit from it” and “for Ramon”.

    At the time, she was arrested but released due to lack of evidence, only admitting her role years later when the statute of limitations expired.

    The move will see Spain become the fourth country in Europe to decriminalise assisted suicide, alongside the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

    Although Portugal’s parliament passed a similar law in January, it was blocked this week by the Constitutional Court.

    The Spanish legislation will permit euthanasia in which medical staff intentionally end a life to relieve suffering, and assisted suicide in which it is the patient who carries out the procedure.

    Various other countries permit the second option, as well as so-called “passive euthanasia” in which life-saving medical treatment is halted.

    – Strict conditions –

    Backed by left-wing and centrist parties, the legislation will allow anyone with a “serious or incurable illness” or a condition which is “chronic or incapacitating” to request help dying, thereby avoiding “intolerable suffering”.

    But it imposes strict criteria: the patient — a Spanish national or a legal resident — must be “fully aware and conscious” when they make the request, which must be submitted twice in writing, 15 days apart.

    The request can be rejected if it is believed the requirements have not been met; it must be approved by a second medic and by an evaluation body.

    Any healthcare professional could withdraw on grounds of “conscience” from taking part in the procedure that would be available through Spain’s national health service.

    The move has been hailed by patients and right-to-die campaigners.

    “It doesn’t make any sense that people… would choose to live an undignified life,” said Sofia Malagon, 60, who has Parkinson’s and worries what will happen if she gets dementia.

    “I don’t want to be left like a vegetable,” she told AFP.

    – ‘Form of murder’ –

    But the move has been roundly rejected by the Catholic Church and Spain’s right-wing parties, with its promulgation also raising questions among some medical professionals.

    Euthanasia “is always a form of murder since it involves one man causing the death of another,” said the Episcopal Conference, which groups Spain’s leading bishops and has accused the government of going from “defending life to being responsible for causing death”.

    “Doctors don’t want anyone to die — it’s in their DNA,” said Manuela Garcia Romero, deputy head of the Medical College Organisation (OMC), expressing doubts over implementation of the law.

    Since the mid-1980s when euthanasia entered the public debate, Spain has experienced several high-profile cases.

    The most famous is that of Sampedro, who became a bedridden tetraplegic after breaking his neck and fought an unsuccessful 30-year court battle to end his own life with dignity.

    He died in 1998 with the help of his friend Maneiro, his story immortalised in “The Sea Inside”, a film starring Hollywood actor Javier Bardem that won the 2005 best-foreign language Oscar.

    Another case was that of Luis Montes, an anaesthetist accused of causing the deaths of 73 terminal patients at a Madrid hospital. A court dropped the case against him in 2007.

    More recently, pensioner Angel Hernandez was arrested in 2019 and is awaiting trial for helping his wife end her life after decades suffering from multiple sclerosis.

    -AFP

  • Controversy as man commits suicide at traffic agency’s premises in Ogun

    Controversy as man commits suicide at traffic agency’s premises in Ogun

    There was pandemonium in Abeokuta on Monday when a man identified as Fatai Salami drank an insecticide known as Snipper and died at the premises of Ogun Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE).

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that Salami was allegedly asked to pay a fine of N215, 000 for violating the COVID -19 law in the state.

    Salami’s truck was said to have been seized by officials of TRACE and in the custody of the traffic management agency in Abeokuta for five days over an alleged N215,000 fine.

    Sources told NAN that TRACE officials seized the deceased’s truck from his driver in Abeokuta on Thursday for flouting the social distancing order and failure to use face masks.

    He was said to have followed his driver to the premises of TRACE to plead for the release of the truck,

    It was gathered that frustrated by the non release of the vehicle, he was said to have opted to drink the poisonous substance.

    Mr Babatunde Akinbiyi, the Public Relations Officer of TRACE , confirmed the death of the deceased in the premises of TRACE in Abeokuta.

    Akinbiyi, however , insisted that the deceased was neither a truck owner nor a driver.

    “The man was neither a truck driver nor a truck owner. One of our commanders and people around saw him sitting on the floor and they asked him to stand up.

    ” As he stood up, he brought out something from his pocket and drank it.

    “We later discovered that it was Snipper he drank . One of his bosses saw him attempting to drink it and screamed, but before help could come ,he had drank it.

    “He was rushed to the General Hospital Ijaiye and at the hospital he gave up. So the case had been reported at Ibara police station here in Abeokuta,” he said.

    He also denied the allegation that TRACE fined the deceased N215,000 for flouting the COVID-19 law.

    “That is a lie, it is not true. It was later we found out that he was a manager of a fleet of trucks owned by somebody else and one of the trucks was penalised for violating traffic rules.

    ” We also gathered that the owner of the truck had warned him to ensure he returns with the truck or risk sack.

    ” Who knows, may be that’s why he killed himself. It is so sad and unfortunate.

    “He was neither a driver nor a truck owner, what he cane here to do we don’t know . A whole lot of them usually come into the premises.

    “If you commit a traffic infraction , you have to be fined and if you think that what you are being charged is on the high side or you are being charged wrongly, you have the right to seek redress which we also entertain and encourage, ” he said. (NAN)

  • COVID-19: Unilorin Euthanasia Prevention Initiative warns against suicide

    COVID-19: Unilorin Euthanasia Prevention Initiative warns against suicide

    The Euthanasia Prevention Initiative of the University of Ilorin (Unilorin) has warned people against contemplating suicide because of Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

    The warning is contained in a statement jointly signed by Prof. Bashir Omipidan, Chairman of Euthanasia Prevention Initiative, and Mr Tajudeen Habeebullah, Coordinator of the Initiative, Faculty of Law, both of Unilorin.

    Omipidan explained that the warning is against the backdrop of recent reports of spate of suicide across Europe in the face of the devastating effect of COVID-19 on people.

    “On March 29, 2020, it was reported that a 54-year-old minister, Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany’s Hesse state, allegedly committed suicide after becoming deeply worried over how to cope with the economic fallout from the Coronavirus.

    “Similarly, an Italian billionaire committed suicide by throwing himself from the 20th floor of his tower after his entire family was wiped out by Coronavirus,” he said.

    He observed that this act can be ascribed to the history of suicide in the ancient Greek and Romans wherein those who felt that if a person is not happy with happenings in one’s community or feels depressed he or she should be allowed to commit suicide.

    “It is in the light of the above the Euthanasia Prevention Initiative condemns in totality, the act of committing suicide as a result of the pandemic.

    “This is because the sanctity of life cannot be overemphasised, life is precious and should not be taken on the basis of any difficulty such as this.

    “The two most popular religions; Islam and Christianity frowns heavily at committing suicide for whatever reason,” he said.

    According to him, the initiative therefore urged people in the country to be steadfast and to increase their level of hope as there is light at the end of the tunnel.

    They also appealed to the Federal and State Governments to ensure all stimulus packages designed for the vulnerable are distributed fairly in order to avert hunger crisis.

    “While thanking spirited and well meaning Nigerians for their support thus far, we appeal to those who are yet to respond to kindly do so for the sake of humanity so that the efforts of the government at all levels can be complemented”.

    Omipidan also advised people to stay away from fake news, stay healthy, stay at home and stay safe.

  • Octogenarian commits suicide in Enugu over family denials

    Octogenarian commits suicide in Enugu over family denials

    An 85-year-old grandpa and father of seven, John Ogili, has reportedly committed suicide at Umu Ogilieze, Enugu Ezike in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State over his children’s alleged refusal to allow him to keep a concubine.
    Pa Ogili, who was the head of his clan, Umu Asema family, Ogrute, was said to have taken his life when his wife had denied him love and refused to cook for him even as his children had also abandoned him. One of his neighbours who identified himself as Mr. Ossai said the deceased was frustrated as his wife and children abandoned him and refused to look after him.
    Read more:Epicenter Wuhan going all out to battle against novel coronavirus
    “The man usually went out to buy food from food vendors and did everything for himself. His wife refused to either make love with him or take care of him just as his children drove away from his lover. “That could have driven him to the extreme decision to end his life.” However, he was buried after police detectives visited the scene of the crime. “His relations paid people who came to bury him after some rituals as he did not die naturally,” Ossai said.