AN official of the State Security Service (SSS) has been shot dead in Owerri, Imo State capital.
The ICIR understands that the officer, identified as one Nwachinaemere Ezemuonye Ozuzu, was killed on Onitsha-Owerri Road.
The officer was said to have been deployed for an official duty in Anambra and was killed while returning to his station.
Another account said that he was killed by a bullet fired by one of his colleagues.
One of his cousins Daniel Opara, who confirmed the incident to newsmen, described it as unfortunate.
“We are yet to get the details of what actually happened as it was alleged that he was killed from an accidental discharge from the gun of a Police officer attached to his colleagues with whom he was on a Joint Task Force on an assignment to Anambra State.
“The family is suspecting a foul play as he was said to have been recently promoted.
“He joined the service about four to five years ago and was married with four children.”
The Imo State Police Spokesman Mike Abattam could not be reached as his phone rang out severally but he did not pick.
The incident came after the offices of the agency and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) were razed by suspected gunmen in Nnewi, Anambra State, on Sunday.
The South-East has, in recent times, witnessed a series of violence and killings of various portions, mostly carried out by the so-called ‘unknown gunmen.’
Recently, Chike Akunyili, a medical doctor and the husband of the late Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and later Minister of Information Dora Akunyili and eight others, were slaughtered on Tuesday night at Nkpor, a suburb of the commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State.
It was gathered that unknown gunmen had opened fire in the usually busy area at a time Akunyili was returning home to Enugu after receiving a posthumous award by the University of Nigeria Alumni Association on behalf of his late wife at the All Saints Cathedral, Onitsha, and he, his driver and Police orderly were caught up in the shooting.
According to the eyewitnesses, the gunmen were probably attracted to his vehicle by the policeman sitting in front of the car and then opened fire on the occupants. Some of them believed it was possible that the gunmen did not know the identity of Akunyili at the time he was shot. They also said that the gunmen cut off the heads of three of their victims before speeding off in a waiting vehicle.
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