Gunmen stormed Holy Rosary Girls Secondary School in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and shoot dead a senior teacher, Mr. Sunday Egba.
Eyewitnesses at the secondary school told The Guardian that the teacher who was preparing to leave the school at about 2.30pm when he received a call from some unidentified persons who asked to come to the school gate.
One of the students who pleaded anonymity told The Guardian that “he was chatting with us when the call came in. he excused and said he wanted to see some persons who we believe knew. Shortly after he left us, we heard gunshots from the direction of the gate. The next thing we noticed was that people were running.”
The Guardian gathered from eyewitnesses that as soon as the agriculture teacher who hails from the war torn Rumuekpe community, came of the gate, three gunmen who were on motorbike opened fire on him. The gunmen after shooting their victim escaped and left him in his pool of blood, he died after minutes later.
The shooting caused mayhem and sent students and teachers running helter skelter for safety. Some of the students told The Guardian that they had to jump over the fence to part of the old GRA area of the city.
Though the cause of Mr. Egba remains shrouded in mystery, sources disclosed to the Guardian that his murder might not be unconnected from the communal crisis plaguing his native Rumuekpe community.
Mr. Egba had dragged some persons who burnt his house in village to court and the matter was yet to be decided before his untimely death.
The Rivers State Police Public Relations officer, Mrs Ireju Barasua who confirmed the killing, said investigation aimed at unraveling the identity of those behind the gruesome murder has commenced.
She disclosed that the police has deposited the remains of the teacher in a morgue in port Harcourt.
The students who were crying and mourning the killing of their teacher have challenged the Rivers State government and the security agents to curb the insecurity and incessant killings in the state, particularly in Port Harcourt.
Series of prominent Rumuekpe indigenes have been killed in same fashion in Port Harcourt in the past two year.