NECO explains how Registrar, Obioma died

The National Examination Council (NECO) has debunked reports circulating in the media that its late Registrar, Professor Godswill Obioma was assassinated on Monday night by suspected gunmen.

It would be recalled that some online news platform had reported that gunmen on Monday night invaded the residence of Obioma and killed him.

One of the reports even quoted his wife as saying, “The assassins came in and killed him and left without taking anything.”

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Elizabeth Obioma was quoted to have said that her husband had just returned to Minna from a trip to Abuja when the armed men, prowling in his compound, descended on him and strangled him.

However, both the police and officials of NECO said Obioma died a natural death and also reconstructed the timeline of his death.

According to senior NECO officials who spoke with our correspondent, Obioma arrived from Abuja on Monday morning, not Monday night.

NECO officials who visited him at about 9 a.m at his Dutse Kura quarters in Minna, were told by Obioma that he would soon report in the office.

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But by 2pm, Obioma had not shown up, making another delegation to go to his home.

The delegation found him alone in his master bedroom, sprawled on the floor, face down. He was stone dead.

His brother, who stayed in Minna, was invited to see the body.

His body was thereafter evacuated to Abuja.

Both the police and NECO officials debunked the assassination story as fake news and the testimony of the wife, Elizabeth as cock and bull stuff.

Obioma, 67, was appointed last year May as registrar and CEO of the agency. He hailed from Abia state.