OFFICERS of the Kano State Fire Service had a six-hour specialized rescue operation to bring down a 27-year-old man from the top of a long steel transmission tower of the ARTV Television Station in the state.
According to a source, who spoke to News Point Nigeria, Thursday, the man resorted to committing suicide by jumping down from the TV station’s transmission tower after some money amounting to N500,000 disappeared from his account.
Confirming the report to News Point Nigeria, the spokesperson of the Kano Fire Service, Saminu Yusuf said, the man wanted to commit suicide after some money he received from a business client disappeared from his account.
“At about 2:30pm on Wednesday, our officers of the fire department were called to ARTV Station, where they found a young man named Saifullahi Yahaya Abubakar on top of the long transmission antenna.
“He claimed, he wanted to end his life after he used his life savings to do a business and the money he was paid for that business disappeared from his account, and his bank said they can’t help him.
“Narrating his ordeal to us, after we got him halfway down, the young man said, N500,000 was transferred to him from an Access Bank account to his Ecobank Bank account for some business he had had done.
“After he received the credit alert, he went to the bank to withdraw the money from his account, only to find out that, it was a fake alert, the money wasn’t in his account. As far as the bank is concerned, the money was never in his account and the client is untraceable and unreachable.
“This difficult situation caused him so much pain and confusion, which made him resort to suicide, as confirmed by his friends and family”, the Fire Service spokesperson said.
According to the Fire man, after the officers who were trying to save the young man’s life realized that they were not going to get him down easily, they kept distracting him while some of their colleagues climbed the metal slowly until they reached where he was at the top of the long metal.
News Point Nigeria learnt that, it took the Kano Fire Service 6 hours to get the young man down, as thrice he was on his way down, and then he will suddenly change his mind and go back up.
“Our trained specialists have to follow him back up three times to begin a new round of counseling and preaching, before we finally got him down on the fourth attempt”, Yusuf stated.
According to him, after they got the man down, the Fire Service men took him to Bompai Police Headquarters, where he was transferred to the Hotoro Police Division for further investigations.
An officer of the Hotoro Division confirmed Saifullahi’s custody to News Point Nigeria, Friday morning.
“Yes, the young man is in our custody and we have started investigating the circumstances behind his suicide attempt”, a text from the Hotoro Police reads.