A woman has reportedly set herself on fire in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, over her inability to pay back a N70,000 loan she obtained from a microfinance bank.
Thelagostimes gathered that the woman, identified as Mama Dada, burnt herself and her rented apartment at Oke-Keesi, Itoko area of Abeokuta.
She was said to have killed herself to avoid the embarrassment that would befall her due to her inability to repay the N70,000 loan.
According to reports, the deceased asked her last born to buy her fuel, locked herself up after the boy was asked to go out, wet everywhere with petrol including herself and set the whole place on fire over the weekend.
A former member of the community bank’s group told Punch that an ‘unprecedented embarrassment’ will befall anyone who refuses to pay back the loan at the set date.
She said, “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 date for repayment that you must meet but if you default, you will live to blame yourself.”
It was gathered that her corpse has been deposited at the State General Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta.