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Published 21 February 2021
THE recent killing of a lecturer of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Imo State, Stephen Nduka, and his friend, Chimaobi Nwokoro, allegedly by trigger-happy Nigerian Air Force personnel attached to the 211 Regiment of the NAF Base in Owerri, the state capital, is distasteful. It brings to the fore the unending menace of extrajudicial killings by security agents in Nigeria.
Nduka, until his unfortunate death, lectured in the Department of Computer Science; Nwokoro was a fresh graduate of the institution awaiting his deployment for the National Youth Service. They were reportedly shot dead in a car on their way back from a church programme by the airmen stationed in front of the NAF base in Naze on the Owerri-Aba Expressway. Media reports stated that the officers opened fire on the car the lecturer was driving with three others as passengers because the occupants allegedly failed to “properly identify themselves.” This claim has been countered by the NAF authorities who instead alleged that it was “unknown gunmen” who did the shooting. The Commander of the 211 Quick Response Group, NAF, Elisha Bindul, whose office is said to be close to the scene of the incident, claimed that they “discovered the lecturer’s body in a Lexus car a few moments after the sound of gunshots was heard.”