Police prevent woman from jumping into lagoon in Lagos

The Lagos state police command on Friday rescued one Taiwo Momoh, who attempted to jump into the lagoon from the third mainland bridge.

Fatai Owoseni, commissioner of police, disclosed this to reporters, declaring that no vehicle would be allowed to stop on any bridge.

Owoseni said his men had begun the patrol of bridges across the state to forestall other cases of suicide.

The commissioner told reporters in Lagos that Momoh was in a taxi heading toward Oworonshoki when she told the driver to stop on the bridge.

Owoseni said the woman was about to jump into the lagoon when a police patrol team on a routine patrol sighted her and prevented her from doing so.

“She attempted suicide by trying to jump into the lagoon around Oworonshoki inwards mainland on third mainland bridge, but she was rescued,” he said.

The commissioner said from his interaction with the woman, she had depression as a result of unpaid loans and insisted that she wanted to end her life.

Owoseni said while committing suicide was an offence under the law, the police would not prosecute the woman but try to talk her out of ending her life.

He said the woman would be taken through post-trauma programme to ensure that she no longer considers taking her life.

The commissioner said the police would do a medical evaluation on her to ascertain her condition.

On Sunday, a medical doctor, Allwell Orji, had jumped into the Lagoon from third mainland bridge.

It took three days for the late doctor’s body to be recovered by the marine police.

Two days after Orji dived into the lagoon, another woman in the Maza Maza area of Mile 2, still in Lagos, ended in the water.

Fisher men and local divers were the ones who rescued her.

Worried by the trend of attempted suicide, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, set up a Suicide Prevention Service.