I want to die - Man tells Police

Officials of the Northern Regional Police Command were, on Monday, thrown into a state of shock when a young man of 26 years indentified as Albert Asamoah rushed into the main yard of the Regional Headquarters demanding concoction to end his life.

“I Want to die”, “I will die here today, please help me” was what the young man repeatedly said and appealed to the officers who had come out of the various offices to catch a glimpse of him to hasten up with the concoction.

He wailed and told the police to get him any poisonous substance that could just hasten his death as he was not prepared to die anywhere outside the police headquarters.

When his pleas for the concoction yielded no result, he demanded for shots of the locally distilled ‘akpeteshie’ to calm down his nerves since, according to him, he was being pursued by his friends who were wielding guns in their bid to end his life.

“I will gladly take it even if it is rat poison,” he remarked.

He could however not identify his pursuers nor give reasons why he was being chased at gunpoint but insisted it was not a funny issue, as some police personnel could not fathom why he opted to end his life and occasionally burst into laughter.

At a point Asamoah asked the officers who had converged around him to alternatively offer him assistance to travel somewhere far away from Ejisu Manhyia in the Ashanti Region where he claimed to hail from.

Sensing he was facing a mental challenge, one of a senior police officers inquired if he smoked, to which he admitted, saying it was only cigarette and not any substance like Indian hemp, as he had quit smoking that for a long time.

When asked if he was ready to travel back to his hometown, he pleaded with the police to cater for his expenses to travel either to South Africa or Senegal where he could easily pursue his suicide ambition.

He has since been kept in police custody while efforts are underway to trace his relations in the Ashanti Region following the conflicting account he gave about himself and his relations.

The police were of the view that he might have absconded from a mental home or was running away from a crime scene and promised to thoroughly investigate his conduct on arrival of his relations later this week.