Gunmen, on Monday night, invaded the residence of Professor Godswill Obioma, killing him in what his wife suspected to be an assassination.
“The assassins came in and killed him and left without taking anything,” Elizabeth Obioma told Peoples Gazette via telephone on Tuesday morning.
Crying inconsolably, Mrs Obioma said her husband had just returned to Minna from a trip to Abuja when the armed men, prowling in his compound, descended on him and strangled him.
It will be recalled Mr Obioma has been facing challenges bordering on moves to remove him from office as the head of NECO, a prominent examination body run by the Nigerian government.
Obioma, 67, was appointed head of NECO barely a year ago on May 14, 2020.
He hailed from Abia in Nigeria’s Igbo-dominated South-East region.
The sad incident occurred barelly a day after Ahmed Gulak, a top politician of the ruling APC, was assassinated. (Peoples Gazette)
▪︎Professor Godswill Obioma’s biography:
Obioma who was born as a native of Amaokpu, Nkpa, Bende Local Government Area, Abia State was appointed as the Registrar of NECO on the 22nd of May 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
In 1975, he graduated from Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education where he studied mathematics and physics, graduating with distinction and as the overall best graduating student.
He was known to have started his career at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a research fellow, after previously been retained by the same institution when he graduated.
He left the university in 1988 and moved to the University of Jos and became the head of the research division of the institute of education as a senior research fellow.
In 1991 at the age of 38, he was appointed a professor of mathematics education and evaluation at the University of Jos, becoming the head of a department, department of science, mathematics and technology education in 1993.
He served as the special assistant on policy monitoring and evaluation to the military administrator of Abia State in 1994.
Obioma served as the director, monitoring and evaluation of the National Primary Education Commission, Kaduna from 1994 to 2000 before becoming the director, monitoring and evaluation, Universal Basic Education Programme, Abuja in 2000.
He served as the director, monitoring, research and statistics, National Board for Technical Education (NABTEB), Benin City from 2003 to 2005.
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