A first-year student and vice guild president of Lira University College, a constituent college of Gulu University, has committed suicide.
Mercy Immaculate Ayo, 21, reportedly doused herself with paraffin on Friday morning and set herself ablaze in her room. She was pulled out of the room and the fire put off. Ayo was then taken to Lira Medical Centre, from where she was referred to Mulago.
However, since she was on oxygen and the hospital could not release to them a gas cylinder, she was taken to Lira Regional Referral Hospital from where she was given a nurse to escort her to Lacor Hospital in Gulu but she breathed her last and passed on at Bobi. Her younger brother Tony Emmanuel Ongom, 19, who pulled her out of the room was also seriously burnt and is admitted to Lira Regional Referral Hospital.
Regional Police PRO Manshur Suwed said he was not aware of the incident. The deceased’s aunt, Scovia Ongom, 39, who was taking care of the brother, said the deceased behaved strangely after returning from visiting her uncle in Aboke on Monday.
Ms Ongom said after getting her holidays, the deceased requested to visit her friend in Kampala and her mother refused but she went away and spent one month without communicating.
She said the deceased came out of her room, smartly dressed and carrying a hand bag. “She sat down politely but left immediately as if she had left something inside,” Ms Ongom narrates. Adding that moments later they heard a loud sound only to discover she had set herself ablaze.
