• Twitter partners African firms against suicide
A middle-aged man known as Akpan has hanged himself after reportedly shooting his wife to death for committing adultery in Cross River State. Akpan had accused his wife of sleeping with another man.
Speaking with newsmen, an eyewitness who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The man (Akpan) had been suspecting his wife for a long time and had repeatedly warned that the day he would catch her red-handed, he would teach her the lesson of her life. We never knew the lesson was to send her to her grave.
“On this tragic day at Bashua community in the Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State, the man brought out a gun after a series of arguments about the act and shot his wife to death.
“It is not as if he caught her in the act; it was mere suspicion,” the source said, adding “that after Akpan killed his wife, he ran away and hanged himself in the forest, but was discovered by the villagers on Monday, September 28.”
It was gathered that the late Akpan was buried at the suicide spot by the villagers, who said it was a taboo to commit suicide in the land. Akpan and his wife had five children, all boys and they hailed from Akwa Ibom State.
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in Cross River State, DSP Irene Ugbo, said she had yet to be briefed on the incident, adding that she would speak with the DPO of the area for confirmation.
MEANWHILE, worried by the alarming rate of suicide in Africa, Twitter is teaming up with organisations in Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya towards addressing the burden.
The new initiative is designed to make it easier for people to find support resources online for issues on suicide or self-harm on Twitter.
The notification includes contact details of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, SADAG, in South Africa; Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative, MANI, in Nigeria, and Amref Health Africa in Kenya.
Speaking on the concept, Head of Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa, Twitter, Emmanuel Lubanzadio said that the open Twitter community can be an important source of real-time support for anyone struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
Founder of MANI, Victor Ugo, said it was founded in 2016, to serve as Nigeria’s most influential youth-led mental health network and biggest provider of crisis support services for mental health. “Prior to this moment, we had focused on a sustained approach of mental health education to help Twitter users in Nigeria identify as ‘spotters’ and share with us, Tweets that they come across which suggest possible suicide risk or mental health crisis.
“So far, this has been an effective enough approach, but we would love to reach more users and on time too and so we are excited to partner Twitter to connect users in Nigeria needing support with their mental health to our services in real-time and on time. ”
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