December 15, 2008

Gunmen kill NYSC member at viewing centre

The peace of Awka, the Anambra State capital, was shattered on Saturday night when two young men walked into a television viewing centre at Amaenyi and shot dead a young man, said to be a member of the National Youth Service Corps.

Events at the centre seemed to be normal until the incident after the live screening of the match between Tottenham and Hotspurs that ended in a goalless draw, before the incident occurred.

The scores of young people, mainly students and football enthusiasts, were leaving the centre in trickles, when two unidentified boys walked into the centre and shot their victim.

Unsure that the first shot could be fatal enough, the gunmen shot repeatedly at the young man in the head before running out of the place.

Some of the people at the centre, who had scampered for safety after the invasion by the gunmen, later returned to the spot to carry the deceased to hospital.

But their effort proved futile as he died before they could get medical attention. They returned the corpse to the centre, where it was till the following morning.

Plainclothes officers from the State Homicide Department came in about 11am on Sunday to examine the corpse before taking it away.

They were accompanied by some relatives of the deceased, who broke down in tears intermittently.

Saturday’s night incident came barely two days after suspected campus cultists shot and seriously wounded a student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, believed to be the leader of the Vikings, a campus cult group.

It could not be confirmed if Saturday night’s incident was a reaction to Thursday’s attack.

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