By Vera Chinonso Aliyu and Ada Obeleagu, YeyeNews.com, October 13, 2021
A man in Umuahia, Abia State has threatened to jump to his death from atop a telecommunications mast unless President Buhari declares himself as life president of Nigeria.
A resident of the area where the mast is located told our reporter that they woke up to see the man on top of the telecommunication mast. “He was screaming that he wants Buhari to continue beyond 2023. He said if Buhari does not declare himself life president, he will commit suicide by jumping.”
“As you can see he is still up there. Some people are even asking him to jump because there is no way Buhari can stay even one second beyond his tenure”, said the resident who sent a live broadcast feed of the situation to YeyeNews.com reporter .
“A man climbed up to try persuade him to come but when the man heard his demands, he just came back down and left him. Let him be waiting for Buhari there. Buhari that did not even attend his COAS burial that took place less than 30mins drive from him.”
However, an eyewitness who claimed to know the man said he is mentally unstable. “His mental illness started last year. He has been struggling after losing his job in 2018. But last year during the lockdown, he started behaving strangely. His call for Buhari to stay for life may just be a form of protest”.
Our reporter gathered that policemen have been called in but they said they could not climb to meet him. “We will be under the mast. If he jumps we’ll attempt to catch him, but if we don’t succeed then its unfortunate for him” a spokesperson for the divisional police headquarters of the area was quoted.
Later that night, the source called YeyeNews.com reporter to report that men wearing IPOB paraphernalia came and borrowed PHCN ladder to climb the mast. They brought the shirtless man down and flogged him “mercilessly” with koboko on his buttock after which gave him food and Sprite and an IPOB T-Shirt and then took him to his wife. “It was the wife that reported the matter to IPOB”, the source said.
The source told YeyeNews.com reporter additionally that when the man was being flogged by IPOB, he was screaming “Ibeku o, Ibeku o, come and save me” in Igbo. Ibeku is the name of his village in Umuahia.
