A 21-year-old man, Utochukwu Ukandu, has set himself ablaze in the Agbado, Egbe area of Lagos State.
His elder brother, Ebuka, told The Punch “Nobody knows exactly why he took that decision. All we know is that he had been telling his parents he would kill himself, but they did not take him serious.
On Monday, around 9pm, he went inside the house and poured kerosene on his body. He wet the bed with the kerosene as well, including the house. He then lit a matchstick and set everywhere on fire.”
The victim was luckily saved, but with a high degree of burns after firemen from the Lagos State Fire Service, Ikotun division came to the rescue.
The Director of the state fire service, Rasak Fadipe, confirmed the incident, saying “Parents must not lose guard of their duties to their children. Where a child has been threatening that he would kill himself, it is important that parents take such a child apart for counseling to avert tragedies.”