An apprentice tailor in Lagos, Adenike Fatai, has killed herself
barely three months after her boyfriend, Bayo Atanda, reportedly died
of suicide.
Fatai, who hailed from Kwara State, reportedly took a poisonous
substance suspected to be sniper around 8.30 pm, last Thursday.
The 25-year-old woman lived with her mother on Igbekele Street, Iyana
Cele bus stop, Shibiri area of Lagos State.
Punch reports that Fatai had been battling depression since her
boyfriend, whom she was living with in Orile, a neigbouring community,
reportedly took a poison and died.
It was gathered that family and friends of Bayo did not believe the
photographer died of suicide, accusing Fatai of killing him. The
accusation allegedly heightened the trauma Fatai was going through.
Although no suicide note was found in the room, our correspondent who
visited Fatai’s Facebook page observed that her status updates
revolved round death and depression.
On June 30, she bemoaned the loss of her boyfriend, who had died two
weeks earlier.
She wrote, “How would you do this? Why! Adebayo Olaleye Atanda Peter;
still can (can’t) believe this is happening to me. I can (can’t) even
say goodbye to you. Ifemi, ayomi; may Almighty Allah forgive all your
sins. Rest on!”
Less than a month after, on July 25, she took to Facebook to express
how much she missed her lover stating that, “The saddest part in life
is to say goodbye to someone you want to spend your lifetime with.”
“Feeling angry with myself,” she wrote in the comment section of the
post with a friend appealing to her to stop thinking negatively.
The following day, she wrote, “Yaa Allah (Oh God); heal my heart, make
it steadfast and make it strong enough to accept what you have
destined for me.”
On August 15, she waxed philosophical quoting the late American
journalist, Norman Cousins, who died of heart failure.
“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what
dies inside us while we live,” the post read.
She uploaded some pictures of herself in cheerful mood few days later.
But on September 8, four days to the suicide, she posted the image of
an archer ready to shoot an arrow, with a caption, “Ofa iku ojiji koni
bae tomotomo (The arrow of death won’t strike you and your children).”
Speaking with City Round during the week, the deceased’s mother, Tawa,
said she met her dead when she returned home from a prayer session
that evening.
She stated, “That day, she finished cooking around 7pm and ate. She
was outside after eating while I went to the mosque. Around 8pm, she
came to the mosque to collect the key to our apartment and I told her
to check the shop.
“On getting home some minutes after, I saw her lying on the floor with
a bottle of sniper beside her. I called for help but it was late.”
Revealing the events leading to the relationship between the lovers,
the mother said plans were ongoing to choose a date for their
introduction.
She said, “She was learning tailoring in her sister’s place in
Ikorodu. All of a sudden, her boss sent her away. She told me she had
got another place to learn the vocation in Orile and that she would be
living with a friend. I asked her to come and learn it at my place but
she refused.
“Whenever I asked to see the friend, she would say she was not around.
It was when I threatened to disown her that she told me she was living
with her boyfriend. I tried to convince her that what she did was
wrong, but she said the man’s (Bayo’s) house was close to where she
was learning tailoring. I met with the man and he said he really
wanted to marry her. He looked very gentle. We were planning the
introduction when he died.
“On a Sunday around 11pm, my daughter called me and started crying on
the phone. She said Bayo drank sniper. They took him to the Lagos
Island General Hospital, but he died the following morning. That time,
she said she would follow him and I tried to caution her.”
Tawa said Fatai became depressed and relocated to her sister’s house
in Ikorodu, adding that she returned to her house after her condition
had improved.
“I never thought she was thinking of suicide because she looked happy.
Some clerics warned us that death was hovering around her and I prayed
over it.
“I learnt she called somebody that evening and told the person that
she wanted to go and meet Bayo and that she would drink sniper. I
don’t know the kind of love she had for him.
“There was a day a friend of Bayo called her and accused her of
killing him. I told her to ignore them. The mistake I made was that I
should have changed her SIM card,” she added.
The deceased’s father, Idris, said, he did not know his daughter was
battling depression as they hardly saw each other.
He stated, “Since her mother and I separated, I usually talked to her
(Fatai) on the phone. Probably she would have told me what was
bothering her if we had the opportunity of seeing each other.”
The deceased’s neighbour in Shibiri, where Fatai died, told our
correspondent that she liked to be alone.
“I have observed recently that she rarely mingled with people, but I
didn’t know she was contemplating suicide. It was so unfortunate,” the
resident, who identified himself only as Sola, said, adding that the
incident was reported at the Ojo Police Station.