Confusion: Wife Says NECO Registrar, Obioma, Murdered; Son, Disagrees

By Ayodele Oni & Akinwale Kasali

There is confusion over, exactly, how Professor Godswill Obioma, the Registrar of the National Examinations Council, (NECO), died. His wife, Mrs Elizabeth Obioma, told the Media that she watched helplessly as yet to be identified persons strangulated her husband, Monday night until he breathed his last.

But his first son, in a rather “too-soon” notification letter addressed to Mustafa K. Abdul, Director, Human Resource Management, NECO, said his father “passed to eternal glory after a brief illness.”

Elizabeth, who narrated the last minutes before the NECO helmsman death explained that the suspected assassins had ambushed her husband without anybody suspecting them.

Narrating the incident  Tuesday morning, she stated that the suspects stormed the residence and strangulated him.

“The assassins came in and killed him and left without taking anything,” she told the media by telephone on Tuesday morning.

Mrs Obioma said her husband had just returned to Minna from a trip to Abuja when the armed men, lurking in his compound, descended on him and strangled him.

But in the purported letter announcing the Professor’s death, his son wrote:

“Dear Sir, this is to formally inform you that my father Prof. Godswill Obioma the Registrar/Chief Executive of NECO passed to eternal glory yesterday 31/5/2021 after a brief illness.

We request that you kindly notify the Board, Management and the entire staff of the Council of this development.

We shall keep you duly informed.”

This Magazine was not able to confirm the sharp and serious discrepancies in the manner of his death as told by his wife and his son.

Prof Obioma has been facing attempts to remove him from office as the Head of NECO, an examination body under the Federal Ministry of Education.

He was appointed to the office a year ago on May 14, 2020. He hailed from Abia state.

The Niger state police command is yet to confirm the incident, but Dr Chidi Odinkalu, in a tweet, called for a thorough investigation, saying that the late Obioma had been having issues at the Ministry of Education.

His assassination in Minna comes 48 hours after a prominent Northerner, Barr. Ahmed Gulak, was assassinated in Imo State on his way to the Imo Airport to board a flight to Abuja.