A 35-year-old man in Lilongwe on Sunday committed suicide by consuming pesticide and jumping into a river in the presence of his 9-year old daughter.
Lilongwe Police deputy public relations officer Foster Benjamin has identified the man as Patulani Yosefe
Yosefe committed suicide on Sunday at Kapingiza Village Traditional Authority Masumbankhunda.
According to Benjamin, Yosefe along with his wife and daughter, went to their garden to apply chemicals to their crops.
Later, Yosefe deliberately sent his wife out into the village to borrow a sprayer.
After the wife left, Yosefe told his daughter that he would kill himself since he was fed up with her mother.
Immediately after saying this, Yosefe took the pesticide before starting off to the nearby Katete River. He plunged into the river and got drowned in the process.
Police detectives retrieved the body and handed it over to a medical officer for postmortem. Results showed Yosefe had succumbed to poisoning.
Meanwhile, police have asked spouses not to contemplate killing themselves when depressed but should rather seek counseling and guidance from marriage counselors, relatives, traditional and religious leaders and the victim support units within the police formations.
