An Assistant Superintendent of Prisons, Alfred Bassa, has committed suicide after being denied promotion three times despite passing the necessary examinations, a report has claimed.
Peoples Gazette reported that the Nigeria correctional officer took his own life on October 2 by ingesting Sniper insecticide while on duty at the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Keffi, Nasarawa State.
He was 28 years old and scheduled to marry on November 19.
The online newspaper, quoting Bassa’s unnamed colleagues, reported that the victim did not suffer any mental health challenges prior to the incident.
He reportedly took the action barely a week after some of his colleagues got communications of their promotion by the Nigeria Correction Service (NCS).
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The incident was said to have sent the Keffi prisons into panic and senior officials from the NCS quickly moved in to quell the incident from getting out.
One of his unnamed colleagues quoted in the report said Bassa watched helplessly as “his contemporaries were being selectively promoted, including some who did not even pass promotional examinations”.
The unnamed colleague said the victim should have been at least promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Prison II but for the injustice.
Another senior colleague said Bassa “decided to end the nightmare by taking his own life”.
The Comptroller-General of Corrections, Ja’afaru Ahmed has yet to comment on the incident.
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