The Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) has expressed shock over the demise of a member of the D'Tigers' 2011 Madagascar Afrobasket bronze medalist, shooting guard Chinedu Onyeuku last weekend.

Nedu, as he was fondly called, was a member of the team that qualified Nigeria for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Venezuela, from where D'Tigers won the qualification ticket to 2012 London Olympic Games.

Nedu remarkably cut short his family holiday to report to national camp in Orlando and play against Team GB and Team Netherlands in the 3-nation tournament in London in the build-up to the 2011 Afrobasket.

He also returned to the team for the Zwolle basketball days invitational tournament in Holland in December, 2011 which was his last national team outing.

"His passion for playing with D'Tigers was deep-seated and he will be greatly missed. The federation joins his family and team mates to mourn a departed son, father, husband and great patriot", NBBF Scribe Francis Gbiri said in a statement yesterday.