Lagos State police boss, Fatai Owoseni, yesterday disclosed that preliminary investigation conducted on the death of Rear Admiral Daniel Ikoli revealed suicide.
Although the police boss said detectives were expanding their investigation with the cooperation of naval authorities, he revealed that three bullets were fired at the home of late Rear Admiral on the day he died.
Owoseni, who made the disclosure yesterday at a briefing held at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, said while investigation into the circumstances surrounding Ikoli’s death was ongoing, detectives were putting together exhibits recovered at the crime scene.
Ikoli, a two-star general of the Nigerian Navy, died in his residence at No. 8b, Roycroft Street, Apapa, Lagos State, last Wednesday. He was said to have shot himself in the chest after firing two previous shots that hit the wall and the television set in his bedroom.
He said: “Investigation is still ongoing. Detectives are trying to put together bits and pieces of information and exhibits gathered. What was reported to the police was a suicide case so we are investigating suicide and not assassination. The officers that responded said the pistol that killed Ikoli was not found on his chest as insinuated. The pistol is in our custody. However, all the things found in his apartment on the day of the incident will form preliminary report.”
The police also expressed the willingness to carry out an autopsy on the body of the deceased. However, friends of Ikoli are demanding ballistics analysis of the pistol found in Ikoli’s apartment to ascertain if the gun actually fired the bullets extracted from the deceased.
Until his death, the late Rear Admiral was the Fleet Commander at Western Naval Command, Lagos. Ikoli, a former member of the Presidential Committee on Audit of Defense Equipment Procurement (CADEP), was last Wednesday found dead in a pool of his own blood in his Apapa apartment.
Source: Guardian
