By Chuks Eke
Pandamonium erupted at Senator Stella Oduah’s Estate, Akili-Ozizor community in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra state, following the shooting and killing of final year Fine and Applied Arts student of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, COOU, Igbariam, Anambra state, Noel Chinedu Okechukwu, by private security guards attached to the Estate.
The incident, according to a strongly worded petition to the Divisional Police Officer at Ogbaru Police Division at Atani, written by the father of the deceased, Rex Peters Okechukwu, a copy of which was made available to newsmen in Onitsha, via WhatsApp, occured on Saturday, August 17, this year.
According to the petition, the deceased, son of Rex Peters Okechukwu, a veteran journalist and pioneer Secretary of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Anambra state council who hailed from Ochuche community also in Ogbaru Local government Area of the state, had left for Senator Stella Oduah’s Estate at Akili-Ozizor, a neighboring community to Ochuche to buy fresh fish from a fish pond located inside the Estate.
The petitioner hinted that on getting to the gate leading to the entrance of the Estate, the private security guards guarding the Estate allegedly disallowed him entrance into the compound to buy the fresh fish from the pond and an altercation ensued between the guards and himself leading to one of the guards pulling the trigger of his pump action riffle and pumping bullets into his body which made him to slump.
The petitioner further alleged that soon after gunning him down, the guards started giving him water to drink and as soon as he took some quantities of the water, he gave up the ghost and the guards sent a motorcyclist who rushed to Ochuche to inform the bereaved family of the unfortunate incident.
The petitioner noted in the petition that himself as father of the deceased and his family members are demanding for justice against the private guards because they had no right to take his life in such a brutish manner.
He insisted that even if they felt he had committed any crime around the Estate or within the entire Ogbaru council area, the best option would have been for them to arrest and hand him over to the police for prosecution and not to execute him extra-judicially.
Reacting to the development, the Divisional Police Officer, DPO at Atani, Mr. Andrew told newsmen on phone that the report he had was that the deceased was among those who had been looting and vandalizing all the properties inside the Estate.
The DPO insisted that apart from that area being an unknown gunmen infested prone, the deceased was caught with his gang members armed with pump action guns looting and vandalizing the Estate and when confronted, they opened fire on the security guards and the guards returned fire for fire which led to his being gunned down, while his deadly gang members fled.
Expressing doubt as to whether the petitioner is actually a biological father of the deceased that warranted him only came to the police station on August 23 to report the killing of his son which took place on August 17, the DPO said he had concluded arrangements to transfer the case file to the State Criminal Investigation Department, CID Annex, Awkuzu, formerly Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, Awkuzu for thorough investigations.
