An operative of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC) has allegedly shot and killed a 100-level petro-chemical engineering student of the Bayelsa State-owned Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island.
It was gathered that the incident happened about 10:30pm on Saturday at the Efeke-Ama area of the university town of Amassoma in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.
The NDU undergraduate, identified as Obinna, was said to have been rushed to a hospital in the community for prompt medical attention but he gave up the ghost.
The NSCDC operative, according to sources, was struggling to free his rifle without pointing the nozzle of his gun upwards and it discharged a bullet which hit the victim and killed him.
It was learnt that the officer was on an official escort duty to a former chairman of the Bayelsa State Sanitation Authority and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abel Ebifemowei, an indigene of Amassoma.
He was said to have travelled to the community in a mini-convoy of vehicles bearing the campaign posters of Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the immediate past Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, who is an APC governorship aspirant.
They were reportedly hanging out in a drinking bar after the local council election in the state on Saturday when the incident occurred.
The corpse of the deceased student had been 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 and sad but denied that they were drinking in a beer parlour and that he used the campaign vehicles of Lokpobiri at the time of the incident.
He said: “It is a lie that I was at the Usual Bar when the incident occurred, and I was not with the official vehicles of Senator Lokpobiri. It is an act of mischief to include Lokpobiri in the incident.
“The Civil Defence personnel with me was trying to free his gun when it went off. The accident was not about me or the Senator Lokpobiri campaign organisation.
“It is unfortunate that he did not face it (the gun) up. The affected personnel was not drunk as claimed. It was just an accidental discharge which every security personnel prays not to happen to him.
“I was not at a bar. 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 that 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
