Forty-seven-year-old Abdullahi Uye Zhiya, a civil servant from Oguma in Bassa Local Government Area of Kogi State, has taken his own life.
This incident occurred barely a month after a top civil servant committed suicide over non-payment of salaries.
Zhiya, a Chief Store Officer at the state Universal Basic Education, Oguma, was said to have ended his own life early this week due to frustrations from non-payment of 12 months’ salaries by the state government.
He was said to have complained bitterly to a friend over his inability to feed his family members.
A close family source told The Sun that due to his economic distress caused by the non-payment of his salaries, four of his children could no longer attend school while the deceased could not afford to buy drugs for his health challenge that had deteriorated.
“He was a hardworking man, his situation became unbearable because those he was indebted to, kept on taunting him and would not accept that he had not been paid. This made life more miserable to him,” the source said.
At the beginning of his predicament, it was gathered, many of his relations were reaching out to him to help in assisting his family members with foodstuffs, but all that were said not to be sufficient, as he resolved in ending his life.
However, some of his relatives indicated that though the deceased was owed 12 months’ salaries, it was not enough for him to end his life abruptly.
“Zhiya may not have taken his life because of his economic challenges; there seemed to be other challenges, which he refused to disclose,” a family source hinted.
“We suspected that what happened has a spiritual undertone. The deceased, at some point, became withdrawn, but even when we asked he was never forthcoming but the frustration of staying for months without salaries contributed a lot,”
He was said to have killed himself by drinking a poisonous liquid substance but he did not leave a suicide note.
Meanwhile, the deceased has since been buried according to Islamic rites.
Civil servants in Kogi State are currently being owed between two and 23 months salary arrears, but Yahaya Bello, the State Governor, claims he has cleared all the arrears and workers are being owed only August and September salaries.
