Granny Commits Suicide after Losing Mobile Phone, Wife Says

Police in Ugandan district of Apac are investigating a case in which an 81-year-old man is reported to have committed suicide after losing a mobile phone.

John Onapa died on Tuesday evening after he reportedly took insecticide, his wife, Sofia Akello told police.

“He returned home in the evening and went straight to our bedroom and kept talking to himself about his lost handset,” the woman said in a statement recorded at Police Station.

“I then followed him to the room and found him vomiting. When I looked around, I saw an empty bottle of pesticide used for spraying cotton on the bed,” she added.

Ms Akello said her husband passed on at around 10pm in their house in Opele Village, Alworoceng Parish in Ibuje Sub-county.

At the time, Akello said her husband could not be rushed to any health facility for treatment because of the current virus lockdown announced by President Museveni recently.

His phone reportedly got lost on Monday at a drinking joint at Alworoceng Trading Centre in his Ibuje Sub-county.

The handset was, however, recovered by the roadside on Wednesday with a missing battery.

The officer in charge of Ibuje Police Station, Mr Christopher Ongu, confirmed the incident.

He said the Onapa’s family members told police that he could have committed suicide under the influence of alcohol and “over frustration that he couldn’t get his lost phone”.

Mr Ongu, however, cautioned residents to desist from attempting suicide because it is a crime in Uganda that contravenes section 209 and 210 of the Penal Code Act.

After obtaining statements from family members, police handed over the body to relatives for burial, Mr Ongu said.