The Lagos State Police Command has banned the walking on bridges across the state or the parking of vehicles on them. This follows the developing suicide epidemic in the country as a result of the harsh economic environment which has made an increasing number of people to lose hope.A report this afternoon in The Guardian quoted Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni as declaring that it is now an offence for individuals to walk on bridges in the state and that no vehicle would be allowed to stop on any bridge in the state henceforth in order to prevent suicide incidences.
Owoseni lamented the rate at which people commit suicide in the country, describing it as worrisome, adding that the police had begun patrol of bridges across the state to forestall other cases of suicide.
He spoke shortly an alert police team rescued a woman, Taiwo Titilayo Momoh, who attempted to jump into the Lagoon from Third Mainland Bridge Friday.
Taiwo’s case is coming few days after a medical practitioner, Allwell Orji, jumped into the Lagoon from Third Mainland Bridge. Orji’s remains body retrieved from the water on Wednesday.
Owoseni told newsmen at the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) headquarters, Lagos Government Secretariat, Alausa, Lagos, that Momoh was in a taxi heading towards Oworonshoki on Third Mainland Bridge when she told the taxi driver to stop on the bridge.
According to Owoseni, the woman was about to jump into the water when a police patrol team on a routine patrol on the Third Mainland Bridge sighted her and rushed to save her before she jumped into the Lagoon.
The Police Commissioner said: “She attempted suicide by attempting to jump into the Lagoon around Oworonshoki inward Mainland on Third Mainland Bridge. Unfortunately for her, she was rescued. The woman was in a taxi and alighted on the bridge and wanted to commit suicide by jumping into the Lagoon.
“The police patrol team sighted her and rushed to rescue her before she jumped into the Lagoon.”
Owoseni said from his interaction with the woman, she had depression as a result of unpaid loans, adding that “she is still insisting that she wants to end her life.”
He noted that while committing suicide is an offence under the law, the police would try to talk the woman out of the abominable act.
The state police boss disclosed that the police would do a medical evaluation on Momoh to ascertain her condition, after which she would be taken through a post-trauma programme to ensure that she has hope and does not commit suicide.