An officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has allegedly shot dead a 100-level student of petrochemical engineering of the Niger Delta University in Bayelsa State.
It was gathered that the incident happened around 10.30pm on Saturday at the Efeke-Ama area of the university town of Amassoma in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
The victim, identified simply as Obinna, was said to have been rushed to a hospital in the community for medical attention, but he died shortly after.
The NSCDC officer, according to sources, was struggling to free his rifle without pointing it upwards and it released a bullet, which hit the victim and killed him.
It was learnt that the officer was on escort duty with a former Chairman of the Bayelsa State Sanitation Authority and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Mr Abel Ebifemowei, an indigene of Amassoma.
Ebifemowei was said to have travelled to the community in a convoy of vehicles bearing the campaign posters of Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the immediate past Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development and an APC governorship aspirant.
It was gathered that the members of the politician’s entourage were hanging out in a pub after the local council election in the state on Saturday when the incident happened.
The corpse of the deceased student was taken to a mortuary, while the killer NSDC officer was taken into custody by the Divisional Police Officer in the area.
Ebifemowei described the incident as unfortunate, but denied that he and the others were drinking at a pub and that he was using the campaign vehicles of Lokpobiri at the time of the incident.
He said, “It is a lie that I was at the pub when the incident occurred and I was not with the official vehicles of Senator Lokpobiri. It is an act of mischief to link Lokpobiri with the incident.
“The NSCDC man with me was trying to free his gun when it went off. The incident was not about me or the Senator Lokpobiri Campaign Organisation.
“It is unfortunate that he did not point the gun up. The affected NSCDC officer was not drunk as claimed. It was just an accidental discharge, which every security personnel prays not to happen to them. I was not at a pub. I was in Amassoma to observe the local government election ahead of the coming governorship poll.”
Ebifemowei also confirmed that the corpse of the deceased student had been taken to Yenagoa by the police and the NSCDC officer was in police custody.
“The security escorts have followed me for over 10 years and we have never experienced any such incident. It is unfortunate,” he added. – Punch.
