Barely 24 hours after surgery, the teenager shot on Monday by a landlord for jumping into his house to retrieve a ball during a game of football in his school field, Paul, has been pronounced dead by the medical team at the Specialist Hospital, Umuguma, Owerri.

Paul?s guardian, Mr. Jonathan Odikanwa, a septuagenarian, told PUNCH Metro that his ward passed away on Thursday afternoon.

It was reported on Wednesday that Paul, 16 years old and a student of Urban Secondary School in the Area N, World Bank Housing area of Owerri had jumped over his school fence to retrieve a ball that entered the yet-to-be-identified landlord?s premises on Monday.

However, the property owner got offended and shot Paul in the waist, leaving him to battle for his life at the hospital.

Odikanwa had on Wednesday appealed to people to pray for the recovery of his ward as he was being wheeled into the theatre to find out where his bowel movements were impeded.

The distraught guardian wailed, ?He has passed away. My son has passed away. The doctors just said they lost him. Even after the surgery yesterday (Wednesday), we had been hopeful that he would come around. My boy who had lived with me for over seven years had passed on?, he said in a pained voice.

According to him, the X-ray didn?t show the bullet in the body but doctors had to operate Paul when it was discovered that his bowel movements were impeded.

Though not a biological son of Odikanwa, Paul had lived with the Odikanwas for about eight years running from where he began schooling and was in JSS 1 at Urban Secondary School, Area N, World Bank area of Owerri.

The Police Public Relations Officer for the Imo State Police Command, DSP Henry Okoye, confirmed the incident and the arrest of the landlord who shot the teenager. (The PUNCH)