Demands urgent probe

From FEMI FOLARANMI, Yenagoa

Although police are treating the death of Rear Admiral Daniel Teikumo Ikoli of the Nigerian Navy as suicide based on the facts of preliminary investigations, there is growing discontentment on the veracity of the suicide theory in the light of the fact that the fatal bullet that killed him came after two misfired shots that struck the wall and a television set.

The tragedy which happened on Wednesday, April 5, 2017, in his residence at No. 8B Roycroft Street, Apapa GRA, Lagos, came barely seven months after Ikoli’s promotion from navy commodore to rear admiral. Close sources’ assertion that the former Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT had worried about becoming a target of assassins because of his membership of the Presidential Committee on the probe of arms deal committee, has also brewed a climate of doubt around the police deduction.

Further grounds for skepticism include telltale signs of stress exhibited by the late naval officer shortly before his eventual death. He was reported to have left his office abruptly on the eve of his death after complaints of ill health. In the weeks leading to his death, close friends observed in him a sharp loss of weight attributed to an undisclosed illness. He also reportedly became withdrawn in a sharp contrast to his lively public persona.

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has insisted that the late rear admiral was assassinated, and have called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and the naval authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death. The IYC in a press statement by its spokesman, Henry Iyalla condemned what it described as “sudden and unlawful killing of a son of the Niger Delta Region, a father to many, a fine and intelligent Naval Officer and a defender of the collective sovereignty of Nigeria.” Iyalla who insisted that Ikoli was assassinated called on security agencies to conduct thorough investigation to unravel those behind his death.

The statement reads in part:  “It would be recalled that the late Rear Admiral Daniel Ikoli a former member of the Presidential Committee on Arms, the Fleet Commander of the Western Naval Command, WNC, who was recently elevated to the rank of a Rear Admiral in the Nigeria Navy was brutally assassinated in his residence Apapa Lagos within the Lagos Naval base on Wednesday April 5 2017 without having the pleasure of his new position.  This kind of killing that occurred in his own home within the Lagos Naval Base leaves no one in doubt that his actual killers may be within the Lagos Naval Base. It also creates a meaningful suspicion that the reason for his death may not be unconnected with his recent elevation within the Nigerian Navy.

“We therefore irrevocably call on the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, Inspector General of Police, the Chief of Naval Staff, and all relevant security agencies to immediately swing into a full scale investigation aimed at unravelling the killers of Rear Admiral Daniel Ikoli and bring the perpetrators of this heinous act to book so justice would be served.

We further sympathise with the Federal Government, the good people of the Niger Delta Region, the Nigerian Navy and the immediate family he left behind. We pray that the Almighty God give the family the grace to bear the irreparable loss. It would be stated for emphasis that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

“We call on all relevant security agencies to do a detailed investigation into the immediate and remote cause of death, with the aim of bringing the architects of this murderous act to book, and serve as a deterrent to many who have such evil intent and as solace to the immediate family that his death was not swept under the carpet.”