RRS ‘arrests’ 17-year-old while attempting suicide

The operatives of the Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command have prevented a 17-year-old boy from committing suicide.

The police said RRS men stopped the boy before he could jump from the Third Mainland Bridge into the Lagoon.

The boy, identified simply as Lanre, a secondary school leaver, was said to be the second child of four children and the first boy of his mother.

The RRS Commander, Olatunji Disu, said, “Some RRS men were on a regular patrol of the Third Mainland Bridge when a roving mechanic drew their attention to a lone teenager standing by the edge of the bridge and looking into the Lagoon curiously.

“On getting to the scene, he was seen standing on the crash barrier, ready to dive into the Lagoon. But before he could jump, he was held in the legs by the RRS officials and taken to the RRS headquarters.”

Lanre told Disu that he decided to jump into the Lagoon after losing N6,000 and a mobile phone to hoodlums on the Lagos Island.

He said his mother had given him the N6,000 to get foodstuffs at Ita Faaji Market, when the hoodlums collected his phone and the money from him.

He said, “I couldn’t summon the courage to go back home to tell my mum that I lost the money. I don’t know those guys and I have never seen them before.”

Lanre’s mother, who was summoned to the RRS office, said she was shocked to learn that he attempted suicide.

She said, “He has just finished his secondary school. I don’t know why he wanted to commit suicide. He is a sickle cell anaemia patient, but he has never been admitted in a hospital before. If I don’t tell you, you won’t know. He is athletic and doing just fine. His father has travelled overseas and re-married. We are doing fine with our lives.

“If he had returned home to tell me what happened, the worst I could have done was to slap him.

“I know I have been an exceptional mother to my four children. I have never allowed them to miss their father and they are doing quite well in their studies.”

Disu said Lanre would be released to his mother, adding that they would report back next week.