Rear Admiral Daniel Ikoli found dead in his home

The Navy community in Apapa area of Lagos was thrown into mourning on Wednesday as Rear Admiral Daniel Ikoli, Fleet Command­er, Western Naval Command (WNC), was found dead in his home.

Sources said that Admiral Ikoli must have killed himself.

The deceased, who was the Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT and later appointed a member of the presidential committee on the probe of arms deal, was said to have been found in a pool of his blood.

It was also learnt that Admi­ral Ikoli had been battling with an undisclosed illness, which made him to lose weight. He allegedly became withdrawn contrary to his usual lively per­sonality.

It  was also gathered that he was suffering from de­pression caused by the high ex­change dollar rate and inabili­ty to source Foreign Exchange (FOREX) for his children’s tu­ition abroad.

According to sources, he had severally expressed wor­ries on the possibility of assas­sins going after him because of  his membership of the presiden­tial committee.

The officers who worked un­der the deceased yesterday ex­pressed shock over his death, suspecting that he might have been assassinated.

A close aide of the deceased, who lives at his home, claimed he heard gunshot from Ikoli’s room and took cover.

He disclosed that Admiral Ikoli’s wife was in Abuja and his children school abroad, adding that his orderly and Naval Assis­tant (NA) usually go home after dropping him.

He said: “The bullet hit him on the chest. Three bullets were seen in his room. No one can re­ally tell what happened but the position he was seen suggests he might have been scared of some­thing or someone.”

“Ikoli was a nice and intelli­gent officer. He was the one who spearheaded the renovation at BEECROFT when he was Com­mander. It’s indeed sad news re­ally,” the aide said.

A statement from the Head­quarters of the Western Naval Command, explained that gun­shots were heard near Ikoli’s house and when his room was opened, he was found dead.

The Navy did not explain what may have led to the alleged incident but it added that the po­lice had been invited and inves­tigations have commenced into the incident.