An Abuja-based medical doctor, Daniel Eitokpah, who was detained after trying to revive a suicide victim, Michael Arowosaiye, has described his exoneration as providential.
Arowosaiye, who was a gospel artist with the Redeemed Christian Church of God, had reportedly hanged himself on Tuesday at Sunnyvale Estate, Lokogoma District, Abuja.
An Instagram user, Eitokpah Henri-Paul, had posted a series of videos on Wednesday, with a caption that read in part,
“My brother, a medical doctor, along with two onlookers were detained for trying to help resuscitate a young man who committed suicide yesterday. The police have him held for no reason; they named them as suspects, and asked them to write statements without any reason for detaining them.”
Daniel, who graduated from Ternopil State Medical School, Ukraine in 2016 and completed his house job at the National Hospital, Abuja, is a National Youth Service Corps member.
The doctor, in an interview with our a PUNCH correspondent, said he lived in Sunnyvale Estate, where the incident occurred on Tuesday evening.
“I went to a friend’s place within the estate; she had made a pot of soup for me, so I wanted to pick it up. On my way out of the place, just walking to my car, two blocks away where the incident happened, I saw some men, about five guys. One of them was shouting for help. Rather than enter my car, I walked towards the small crowd to find out what was happening.
The guy shouting for help was saying,
‘There is someone inside the house—at the back—hanging himself.’ He kept
repeating it and I was trying to be careful to understand the scene and
what was going on. I initially thought it was a kidnap attempt, so I
tried to distance myself from the people.
“I asked him, ‘If you know there is someone
hanging himself inside the house, why don’t you go and help him?’ He
said he was scared as there were dogs in the house. So, I asked the
neighbour standing by, ‘Can you go to the back and peep over the fence
to see if this is true?’ He ran there, confirmed it and came back
shouting, ‘It’s true, there’s someone there hanging himself.’”
