What you’re seeing here is not a scene from a movie but the dramatic moment when Sunday Omotayo, an unemployed engineering graduate of old Ekiti State University, was rescued yesterday by men of the Akwa Ibom State Police Command from committing suicide in Uyo, the state capital.

Here is how National Mirror newspaper captured the incident: ‘Omotayo caused a stir along Wellington Bassey Way when he deliberately jumped out of a speeding Toyota Hiace bus, expecting to be crushed to death by oncoming vehicles.

‘Omotayo said he was frustrated as he had toiled day and night in search for a job for over 10 years after graduation but to no avail.

‘According to some policemen, Omotayo had in the morning gone to the Prison Service asking the officials to either kill him or put him into prison.

‘One of the prison officials, who spoke to National Mirror, said: “We just saw somebody, well dressed and on tie with no look of mentally deranged running towards us. His action forced us to become immediately alert with our weapons.

‘ “The next thing he said was ‘shoot me’, ‘shoot me’, ‘I want to die’, ‘I am tired of this world.’ We were still facing him with our weapons when he scrambled towards us, saying we should allow him to enter and die inside the prison.”

‘The official added that Omotayo was later overpowered by the police, who arrested, debriefed him and forced him into a bus heading towards the Ibom Plaza Roundabout.

‘Omotayo jumped from his sitting position in the bus to crash on the major road for oncoming vehicles to run over him.

‘Lying on the main road leading to the Akwa Ibom Government House, he gave police officers hectic time before getting him out of the road, saying he wanted to end his poverty-stricken life by committing suicide.

‘Omotayo, who mumbled some words before journalists at the scene, said: “There is no state that I have not gone to in search of job in the past 10 years, but none for me. I came to Akwa Ibom State because this is my last hope because of the stories of Governor Godswill Akpabio and his uncommon transformation. I came with the hope that with what is going on in the state, getting job would be easy. But since I came, I discovered that even many people from Akwa Ibom are also crying because of poverty and joblessness.” ’

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