In what is coming as a really shocking development, a JSS1 student, identified as Paul has been shot dead by a landlord after his ball strayed into the man’s compound
Paul, it was learnt was trying to retrieve a ball during football in his school field
According to reports, the accused who also owns a primary school, refused to forgive the boy despite plea for mercy and shot him twice.
Paul died at the Specialist Hospital, Umuguma, Owerri barely 24 hours after undergoing a surgery.
The boy’s schoolmates, seeking justice, vandalized the man’s school in response to the horrific incident.
Paul’s guardian, Mr Jonathan Odikanwa, a septuagenarian, told Punch that his ward passed away on Thursday afternoon, March 20, 2025.
The 16-year-old student of Urban Secondary School in the Area N, World Bank Housing area of Owerri had jumped over his school fence to retrieve a ball that entered the yet-to-be-identified landlord’s premises on Monday.
However, the property owner got offended and shot Paul in the waist, leaving him to battle for his life at the hospital.
Odikanwa had on Wednesday appealed to people to pray for the recovery of his ward as he was being wheeled into the theatre to find out where his bowel movements were impeded.
“He has passed away. My son has passed away. The doctors just said they lost him. Even after the surgery yesterday (Wednesday), we had been hopeful that he would come around. My boy who had lived with me for over seven years had passed on,” he wailed.
According to him, the X-ray didn’t show the bullet in the body but doctors had to operate Paul when it was discovered that his bowel movements were impeded
Though not a biological son of Odikanwa, Paul had lived with the Odikanwas for about eight years running from where he began schooling and was in JSS 1 at Urban Secondary School, Area N, World bank area of Owerri.
The spokesperson of the State Police Command, DSP Henry Okoye, confirmed the incident and the arrest of the landlord who shot the teenager.
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