Police officer's widow commits suicide a month after husband's death

A woman who lost her police husband just one month ago, has committed suicide as she could not come to terms with the fact that she has lost the father of her children, the Nation reports.

The woman, Mrs Philomena Asuquo, took her life at the Police Barracks on Sagamu Road in Ikorodu, Lagos State, on December 31, 2015, the New Year’s Eve.

Mrs Asuquo, whose late husband, Inspector Uwem Asuquo who was attached to the Area ‘C’ Command in Surulere, Lagos Mainland, is yet to be buried, was said to have drunk a poisonous insecticide called sniper, apparently out of frustration.

Her 19-year-old son, Shadrach, who rushed her to the Ikorodu General Hospital, said his mother had been depressed since her husband died in late November.

The teenager said he ran into his mother’s room, after perceiving the insecticide’s odour around the living room and found her writhing in pains.

Shadrach narrated that he and his younger brother, Daniel, had gone to their aunt’s place to help her clean her new apartment and upon their return, they found their mother watching television.

He said she watched them go into the kitchen to take their food, adding that she later went into the kitchen to take her own food and went to her room.

“She has been depressed since my father died in police custody but she has never attempted suicide.

That day, I and my brother went to my aunt’s place to help her wash the house because she was moving to their house in Ikorodu. When we got back, she was sitting in the parlour watching television.

My brother and I went to the kitchen to take our food. After we had eaten, she went into the kitchen to take her food and went inside her room.

I went to the toilet and when I got back to the sitting room, I started perceiving the odour of the insecticide.

Then, I ran into her room and saw her on the floor holding her stomach. Immediately, I took her to the hospital where she died.”

The late Inspector Asuquo's older brother, Peter, said the family was awaiting police directives on his funeral, since he died in service.

“My brother was serving at Orile before the incident that led to his detention. He was involved in accidental discharge; he fled but turned himself in two days later.

He was healthy and did not show any sign of sickness. But surprisingly, one of my brothers called me that day that I should leave whatever I was doing and come to the station.

By the time I got there, he had already been taken to a hospital and he was vomiting some things that I cannot explain.

He died that same day and the police conducted autopsy on him, which showed that he had hypertension and diabetes.

My brother was not dismissed because his second wife told us that they received alert for the payment of his November and December salaries.

I just want to beg the police to conclude all processes and pay his pension and other entitlement so that his three children as well as his aged father do not suffer unduly,” he said.