Confusion has erupted at the Senator Stella Oduah’s Estate, Akili-Ozizor community in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, following the controversial circumstances that led to the shooting and killing of a final year Fine and Applied Arts student of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Anambra State, Noel Okechukwu.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the 27-year-old was shot dead by the local vigilante operatives attached to the estate on August 17.
But while the family members of the victim claimed that the local security of the community carelessly killed their son in cold blood for no reason, the security operatives disagreed, alleging the boy was shot because he was one of those who had been “looting and vandalising” properties in the estate.
Speaking to our correspondent on Thursday, father of the boy, Rex Okechukwu, disclosed that the local vigilantes shot his son dead inside the estate as he was going to buy fresh fish from a fish pond.
In a strongly-worded petition sent to the Divisional Police Officer at the Ogbaru Police Division, Atani, the distressed father, a one-time Secretary of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Anambra State council, stated that, according to eyewitnesses, the shooting occurred after an altercation ensued between the guards and his son.
The petition, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent read,
“The incident occurred on Saturday, August 17, 2024. On the said day, my son, Noel Okechukwu, a 27-year-old final-year student of Ojukwu varsity, had left for Senator Stella Oduah’s Estate at Akili-Ozizor, a neighbouring community to buy fresh fish from a fish pond located inside the estate.
“On getting to the gate leading to the entrance of the estate, the private security guards disallowed him entrance and an altercation ensued between the guards and himself leading to one of the guards pulling the trigger of his pump action rifle and pumping bullets into his body which made him to slump.
“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 inform the bereaved family of the unfortunate incident.
Source: Punch
