Nick Imudia’s family challenges suicide reports, says police probing his death

The family of late Nick Imudia, former chief executive officer (CEO) of Konga, an e-commerce company, has vehemently disputed claims that he took his own life.

On June 27, Imudia was reported to have allegedly jumped from a storey building in Lagos.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the spokesperson of the Lagos police command, told TheCable that the state criminal investigation department (SCID) has commenced an investigation into Imudia’s death.

Hundeyin said Imudia “Allegedly jumped. Investigation commenced at Homicide section SCID, Yaba”.

In a statement on Sunday, signed by Anthony Imudia, the family said his death was wrongly characterised as suicide by media reports.

“The family of Nick Imudia is unhappy with the unprofessional manner the media has wrongly characterized the reporting of Nick Imudia’s death as suicide,” the family said.

“This is also supported by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police’s office that has vowed to investigate the sudden death of Nick.

“Neither did Nick call his brother in America with instructions on how to distribute his wealth, nor placed a call to his daughter with any instructions.

“How come the news was reported so hastilly (less than 3 hours from his death) before his family members even knew about it – and the medical team was still trying to resuscitate him at the hospital.”

The family said Imudia, until his death was the group CEO of D.light International with headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was residing.

“He managed the company’s worldwide operations from Nairobi,” the family said.

“Nick was full of life and people that worked closely with him or met him in the last hours prior to the incident surrounding his death were shocked with the media attributing his death to ‘suicide’.

“He was on a short visit to Lagos after a brief trip to the Netherlands and was to return to Nairobi a day after his sudden death.

“He comes from a close-knit family where support abounds and Nick never showed any sign of stress and he was not diagnosed as depressed at any point.

“The thought of suicide in the manner portrayed and hastilly reported by the news media is suspect.”

The family further asked the media and the general public to allow them to grieve their loved one without any unfounded rumour of the circumstances surrounding his death.