A MAN brandishing a machete and threatening to commit suicide on the anniversary of reggae star Bob Marley’s death was talked out of it by Guinea’s Interior Minister Clemente Engonga Nguema, local radio reported on Sunday.
The 25-year-old man nicknamed ”Rey” (king) was reportedly under the influence of cannabis on Saturday when he climbed to the top floor of a building recently gutted by fire and prepared to jump.
For three hours, he kept police and onlookers in suspense, threatening to jump more than 30 metres to his death.
Shouting ”Allah o Akbar” (God is greater), the young man threatened police who came near him with his machete.
In an incoherent ramble, he claimed he had been driven to suicide after a family argument. But his friends said he wanted to commemorate Marley’s death on May 11, 1981.
Eventually, to the applause of onlookers, Nguema coaxed the man off his perch in an exchange broadcast over state radio. ? AFP
