Police Were Concerned Winner Of IBM Competition Killed In Lagos Had A Laptop – Cousin

David Ntekim-Rex, a 22-year-old Systems Engineer and winner of IBM’s annual ‘Master the Mainframe’ competition was killed by robbers in Lagos State last Friday.

The attack was said to have happened in the Jibowu area of the state.

In 2018, Ntekim-Rex beat 17,000 contestants from around the world, including finalists from Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Nepal, and the United States to emerge as the co-regional winner of the annual Master the Mainframe competition, organised by AngelHack and IBM Z Academic Initiative.

A Twitter user named Roy Mustang, @Magnanimous_, who identified himself as a relative of the deceased, said Ntekim-Rex, who was the son of Dr. Yewande Ntekim-Rex, a senior lecturer at the English Department, University of Lagos was shot around 8 pm.

Mustang said the police were contacted but that on their arrival, they were concerned about taking pictures and probing why the systems engineer had a laptop on him.

He said, “My ‘auntie’ has three sons. She’s always crazy about them. The middle child, David, was the most promising. He was a tech guy; very young, very brilliant. David was on his way home on Friday night when he was robbed, shot and killed around Jibowu. Please, say a prayer for my aunt.

“David got shot around 8 pm. The police were called, David hadn’t died yet. The Nigeria police took pictures instead and were more concerned about why he, a tech guy, was carrying a laptop. Nigeria failed you, David.

“David was taken to the military hospital around the area. It took a senior nurse to come out and start checking for a pulse. He had lost a lot of blood at this point.

“The police then took David and his family to Sabo (police station), where they looked for the laptop that he had on him instead of giving them a police report. He was finally released to his family, and they got to LUTH (Lagos University Teaching Hospital) around 12.30 am. 

“He was there till the family was convinced he couldn’t be alive because he had no pulse. The country failed David. The doctors failed David. The police failed David. The system failed David. Rest in peace David Ntekim-Rex.” 

Mustang posted later that David’s mum was still in shock on Sunday, up till the time he left her.

“I don’t think it has fully hit her what just happened. She’s still in shock,” he wrote. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, Ntekim-Rex worked as a product designer at Crevatal, a technology firm, before his demise.