LASTMA official hangs self in Ikeja

Tope Akinde, an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), committed suicide in Ikeja, the state capital, on Saturday.

The official’s lifeless body was found on a tree around Salvation bus stop, along Opebi road.

The shocking act had attracted people who gathered around the scene, causing gridlock and hindering vehicular movement.

Officials of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps later restored normalcy at the scene.

Bala Elkana, the state police public relations officer, said a female LASTMA official informed the command of the incident.

He said Akinde’s elder brother claimed that the LASTMA official had been mentally unstable for a while.

“On Saturday, February 1, 2020, around 10.57 a.m., a female LASTMA official, Yetunde Olajabu, came to the police station and reported that she received a phone call from an unknown person that one man hanged himself on a mango tree at Opebi and was later identified to be Tope Akinde, a staff of LASTMA,” he said.

“His corpse has been deposited at IDH Hospital, Yaba mortuary by the Lagos State Ambulance Service. Information at our disposal from the deceased’s elder brother reveals that the late Tope Akinde had a mental problem which the family had been managing before his death.”