Abia State Commissioner Die From Gun Shot

After battling for his life for six days, Abia State Ccommissioner for Agriculture, Dr Kenneth Nwosu, has died from the guns shot wounds he sustained following an attack by suspected assassins. 

He was attacked by hoodlums on July 9, along Umuajata/Amakama Road, while driving from Umuahia, the state capital, to his home at Olokoro in Umuahia South Local Government Area.

Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Eze Chikamnayo, announced Nwosu’s death at a press conference yesterday, saying that the agric commissioner breathed his last on Monday night at the state Specialist Hospital Umuahia, where he had been receiving medical attention.

He said the death of Nwosu was a sad moment for the government and the entire people of the state because the late commissioner was “a colossus (and) the best hand in agriculture.”

He noted that the state government made spirited efforts to save his life after he was rushed to the hospital and a team of doctors were on hand to provide him with adequate medical attention.

The information commissioner said arrangements had been made to fly Nwosu abroad for further medical attention but he could not be moved out immediately as doctors advised that the patient needed to be in stable condition before he could be flown abroad.

He said the state governor, Chief Theodore Orji, had ordered security agents to do everything in their power to fish out those behind his killing, vowing that the hoodlums must be made to face the full wrath of the law.

Nwosu was said to have been left with shattered intestines after the gun attack with the Chief Medical Director of the state Specialist Hospital Umuahia, Prof Augustus Mbanaso, saying the victim was brought to the hospital in critical condition and had to be stabilised before surgery was carried out.

Police public relations officer (PPRO), Geoffrey Ogbonna, had told journalists after the incident that the police could not immediately confirm if Nwosu was a victim of assassination but added that  “from the look of things it was obvious they (gun men) had a hidden agenda  as they did not  remove anything from him or collect his car.”

He said the police had launched full investigation into the incident and called for useful information from the members of the public to assist the police in tracking down the gun men so they could be made to bear the consequences of their heinous crime.

The late commissioner was brought into Governor Orji’s cabinet in September 2013 after his retirement from the National Root Crop Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike, where he served two terms as the executive director.