FACTS emerged yesterday on why a staunch member of the Peoples De-mocratic Party (PDP), Mr. Alade Aba-niwonda who contested Lagos East Senatorial election during the April general elections committed suicide on Monday in Lagos.

This is coming as the police in La-gos are still combing the Lagos waterways for the body of the deceased who allegedly jumped into the lagoon on Monday, 24 hours after he was officially declared missing.

According to Abaniwonda’s driver, simply identified as Wasiu, late Aba-niwonda was returning from a bank on Lagos Island when he told the driver that he was pressed and would need to use the toilet. Wasiu added that all his entreaties and persuasions that his boss should wait until they got to his office, at the CSS Bookshop building in Broad Street, fell on deaf ears.

Lagos residents had watched the mild live drama which occurred at the Leventis bus stop in Marina, Lagos, on Monday when Abaniwonda, aged 56, dived into the lagoon under mysterious circumstances.

Investigation by Daily Trust re-vealed that Abaniwonda, a chartered accountant lost substantial amount of money to the tune of N300 million and some landed property which he sold to raise money for his senatorial ambition which he eventually lost.

It was reliably gathered from one of his aides that late Abaniwonda had not been himself since he lost the senatorial election to Senator Gbenga Ashafa of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

According to the aide who pleaded for anonymity, Abaniwonda had dreamt of being a senator of the Federal Republic since 1999 when the nation returned to civil rule. It was learnt that he joined Alliance for Democracy (AD) to realise his dream but he was told by the party leaders to step down for another candidate in 1999 and also to step down for immediate past Senator Olorunimbe Mamora in 2003.

The aide noted that after Abaniwonda had been picked by PDP to contest Lagos East Senatorial election, he spent a fortune to ensure he won. “I recollect a period he spent about N75 million within three days doling out money to various political groups, community leaders and individuals to ensure he won the election”, the aide disclosed.

He said late Abaniwonda became disillusioned when his hope of becoming a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was dashed as he was not picked by the presidency to represent Lagos State in the Federal Executive Council.

Meanwhile, police officers attached to the Marine Department of the Nigeria Police Force were said to be combing the Marina end of the Lagos lagoon for the corpse of the deceased at the time of this report.

Lagos Police spokesman stated that though the command received news about the incident, it was yet to confirm since officers from the Marine department of the Nigeria Police Force were still searching the lagoon in search of the body.

“As I speak, members of the family of the victim are presently with the police as they are being interviewed on why he may have embarked on the suicide,” he added.

http://dailytrust.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23518:pdp-chief-drowns-in-lagos-lagoon&catid=1:news&Itemid=2

Make una comment na

Old news, continue here: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-716210.0.html