Mother of medical doctor who committed suicide by jumping into Lagos Lagoon refuses to believe he is dead

24 hours after he jumped off 3rd mainland bridge and into the Lagoon, mother of 35 year old medical doctor, Allwell Orji, Chinyere Orji has refused to believe that her son is dead. A relative of the deceased who spoke to newsmen at the family's home at Abujle-Ijesha in Yaba, Lagos state yesterday, said Mrs Orji who is a retired banker, has refused to believe that her son who is the first of three children, is dead. She is still hoping that he would be rescued.

"You people don’t know what we have been through since yesterday. Please, respect our grief. This is not a case of a grandfather that died and we want to celebrate it. This whole issue has been difficult for us. The mother is up there, not talking to anyone. Not even us who are very close relatives. People have been around her since yesterday so that she doesn’t do anything drastic. She has yet to accept that he could be dead. She doesn’t even accept people’s sympathies and condolences. As a Christian, she’s believing God that a miracle could happen and that her son won’t die. She believes he’s just missing and would return alive”he said

Meanwhile efforts to recover his body from the lagoon yesterday proved abortive as men of the Lagos State Emergency Mangement Authority are still searching the lagoon for his remain. LASEMA’s General Manager, Adesina Tiamiyu who was at the scene this afternoon, told newsmen that he is not aware of any suicide note said to have been dropped by the deceased.

“We are still searching for the body. We have expanded the search to go further than the point it happened. We have told local men around to watch out for any floating body and we have engaged local divers to look around for us. Patrol boats are in the water going round. We would continue to search for him. The family is traumatised at this point and unwilling to speak on the issue. I want us to respect their wishes please. We have established contact with the family and expressed government’s sincere wishes to them. We would also go back at a time they feel better because we would like to know what happen so that Lagosians and Nigerians can learn a lesson or two from it. It’s an unfortunate situation. But what do we do? The driver is with the police. The police would be more involved in the investigation. If we are able to pick one or two things, we would pass it across. I am not aware of any suicide note. His phone and car are with the police.”