27th May, 2010
Overwhelmed by his financial and social predicament, a 47-year-old welder decided to end it up in the Lagos lagoon on Wednesday.
He was, however, stopped as he attempted to leap and was handed over to the police.
The Lagos police spokesman, Mr. Frank Mba, who paraded Fatai Kuti before newsmen at his Ikeja office, said that preliminary investigations revealed that the man had no record of mental illness, except that he was overwhelmed by the problems of this world, especially his inability to pay a N150,000 debt.
He said that police had begun investigating all his claims with a view to assisting him, adding that he would be put in the protective custody for now.
Mba commended the Nigerians who rescued him, advising that “we should always be our Brother’s keeper.”
Speaking with journalists, Kuti claimed he had three kids and a wife, both of them jobless.
He said the children took ill at will due to lack of care, while his landlord had asked him to quit his apartment for inability to pay his rent.
According to him, nobody is wiling to assist him in spite of repeated appeals.
“I woke up this morning in my home at No. 22, Itunkpate Street, Ikorodu. I left home without telling anybody where I was going to.
“When I got to Adeniji-Adelele, I dropped off from the vehicle and decided to end it up,” Kuti explained.
He appealed to his landlord to give him time to pay, even as he wept uncontrollably while presenting his story.