According to Punch, the woman known only as Mama Dada allegedly set herself on fire in her rented apartment where she resides because she could not repay the N70,000 loan she had obtained from a microfinance bank.
The burned-out body of the deceased was consumed entirely by the fire that engulfed the building in Abeokuta’s Oke-Keesi, Itoko neighbourhood.
“I was told that she obtained the loan running into N70,000,” she stated.
Anyone who refuses to pay back the loan by the deadline will experience a “unparalleled shame,” according to a former member of the community bank’s group who only went by the name Mrs Adeogun.
She stated, “If you refuse to pay them back at the set date, you will be treated like trash, you will be embarrassed in a big way, in a manner that your children will forever be ashamed of. I know what I am saying; I used to be a member.
“One must be a member and a committed one before you will be given a reasonable amount of money.
“What they do is that you will join the group and start making thrift with them, it is the evidence of this thrift through your card that will qualify you for a loan which you must either pay back outrightly or in batches.
“But either in batches or outrightly, there is always a set a date for repayment that you must meet but if you default, you will live to blame yourself.”
The dead was owed, according to Ade Babawale, the area’s Community Development Association’s secretary.
Babawale stated, “She was owing the sum of N70,000. Because she was unable to meet up with the payment, she then sent her last born to buy fuel and also used style to discharge the small boy and she locked herself up inside the room and wet everywhere with petrol, including herself and set the whole place on fire.”
The State General Hospital in Ijaye, Abeokuta, has received her body.
Bolanle Ajayi, a resident and eyewitness, verified to our correspondent that the woman committed herself because she was unable to repay the money.
The matter has been reported to the police.
May her soul rest in peace.
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