Muritala Afolabi, a vulcanizer who resides in Lagos state, is currently on admission in a hospital after he set himself ablaze in Iree, Osun state last Friday, September 23.

Muritala was heard screaming by his neighbors as he suffered severe burns to his body and was rushed to the hospital.

Muritala stated in an interview with Punch that he committed suicide after being subjected to emotional torture and frustration by his wife. Muritala, the 30-year-old artisan, said that he married his wife in July 2022. Since then, the woman made life difficult by allegedly cursing and abusing him.

“I just thought of ending it. That Friday, I went into a filing station, bought fuel and went to a forest behind Baptist High School, Iree, and set myself ablaze.

I thought of what I was passing through and it made me to decide to end my life. Poverty and repeated curses of my wife made me to lose hope. I married the woman just in July this year.

Some people heard me when fire was burning my body and rushed to the scene. They rescued me and brought me to hospital.”

When contacted by our correspondent over the phone, Muritala’s wife, Ifedolapo, denied cursing him.

“I don’t know why he decided to kill himself. I am his wife. I am yet to have any child for him.”