There was panic Thursday in Lekki area of Lagos, after a Cameroonian who attempted to commit suicide, climbed an electric pole, threatening to jump down from it if he was not giving N5 million.

He demanded for N5 million from fearful Lagosians who appealed to him to come down. At about 7am Thursday the sight of the man whose identity could not be immediately ascertained, caught the attention of residents of Adebisi Oguniyi Crescent, Ikate roundabout, Lekki, Although nobody could tell how he found his way to the electric pole but residents made frantic calls to security agencies to come and salvage the situation. Entreaties by policemen from Maroko division, who arrived the scene first failed to pacify the man.

After staying there for over one hour, the policemen drove off in their van, frustrated. Part of measures applied to secure a safe landing for him included the provision of an inflatable trampoline by residents, for him to jump on. Yet, he refused to come down and at about 3pm, insisting on receiving the N5m .

Out of frustration, the inflatable trampoline was deflated. However, at about 5pm, the man was finally rescued by men of the Lagos State Fire service, eleven hours after he was sighted on the pole. One of the chief campaigners who attempted to lure the Cameroonian down, was one Ken Egbas, founder of White house PR.

He described the attempted suicide as a display of lack of responsibility by security agents. With the hashtag #SuicideAttempt he wrote on he tweeted , “I have temporarily left scene for my office after being on ground from 6:30am and making every effort on #SavingCitizenPoleClimber. “The hard lessons from today: Lesson 1: our response to emergencies as a society is appalling. Nobody takes responsibility #SuicideAttempt. “We have people who adorn various uniforms of the various government/ security agencies who don’t have the values and ethics required #SuicideAttempt.

“If you have a serious emergency security wise, do not expect any response from government. It’s not yet election time #SuicideAttempt. Director , Lagos State Fire Service, Rasaq Fadipe who expressed joy over the success at luring the man down, said “the victim, a Cameroonian was rescued alive with minor injuries and conveyed to the hospital”