Bayelsa Worker Commits Suicide Over Unpaid 13 Months’ Salaries

A civil servant in Bayelsa state has committed suicide due to the frustration of economic hardships caused by the failure of the state government to pay workers’ salaries for 13 months.

An employee of the Bayelsa State Water Board, Peter Ogiero, has allegedly committed suicide following the non-payment of his salaries for 13 months by the state government.

According to Daily Independent, the middle-aged engineer reportedly took his life on Tuesday after he waited endlessly for the period without any action by the Governor Seriake Dickson-led administration to save workers at the board from their financial predicament.

Sources said that the deceased, who is a father of four, and whose only means of livelihood was his monthly take home pay, was allegedly overwhelmed by frustration over the unfortunate development.

Ogiero was said to have first developed hypertension and later stroke about one year ago when he found it extremely difficult to care for himself let alone his wife and four children.

In the midst of his sorry state, his second wife, it was learnt, had to abandon him for their village alongside three of their children.

The only child, a teenager, that stayed with him in his state of impoverishment and anguish, was his first son, Wilson, who barely depended on charity for survival.

Wilson’s mother was said to have died before Ogiero married his second wife, who allegedly abandoned their home at Okaka area in Yenagoa metropolis because the breadwinner could no longer provide ‘bread’ for the family.

It was further learnt that Ogiero, who felt life and the government were unkind to him, decided to kill himself by taking a sniper, an insecticide.

A visit to the Ogieros’ residence on Thursday, showed that the deceased’s relations, who wore sad looks, could hardly narrate how the deceased lived in penury and committed suicide out of frustration.

However, a niece of the deceased, who gave her name only as Tina, said the deceased had been suffering from stroke for over 12 months.

“The stroke was caused by too much of thinking due to the fact that the state government has been owing him (deceased) salaries for 13 months.

“This state of affairs has caused a lot of issues in the deceased’s home. At a point, when his wife could no longer bear the situation, she had to run away from home with his three children to their village,” Tina said.