A reporter with Vanguard newspaper, Tordue Salem, who went missing a month ago, has been found dead. He was knocked down by a hit and run driver according to the police.
This was disclosed by police spokesman, Frank Mba, on Friday in Abuja while parading the driver, Itoro Clement.
Salem, a reporter covering the House of Representatives for the Vanguard newspaper, was last seen on 13 October in the Garki district of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
After the close of work that day, he was said to have alighted from a cab at Total filling station, close to the Force headquarters, and headed for B.J’s garden, in the company of a female relative.
Thereafter, he reportedly flagged a cab for the lady who left before him, informing her that he was going to Area 8, Garki. But he was never seen until his remains were recovered on Thursday.
His body was found on Thursday more than a month after he went missing.
The police said the 29-year-old Clement was arrested following an investigation carried out by the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB).
Mba said the suspect who was driving a 2004 Model Camry with number plate BWR 243 BK confessed to have hit Mr Salem about 10:00 p.m. on the night of 13 October around Mabushi area in Abuja, but ran away.
Clement said: “I thought it was an armed robber that I knocked down until the following day when I saw a smashed phone on my windscreen. The phone was not working again so I threw it away.”
Explaining why he did not wait after the accident, Clement claimed that the area where the incident occurred is notorious for criminal activities.
“The place I knocked this person down is a criminal place; everybody knows that place,” he said.
The police had earlier on October 25 promised it would find the journalist when the FCT chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the police headquarters in Abuja.
“We are as concerned as journalists and members of the family. We have commenced investigation and we have done everything humanly and technologically possible to ensure he is found.
“We have interrogated at least six persons and we have traced the places he visited after he left the National Assembly.
“We have spoken with the last person he had encountered. We are imploring members of the family, public and journalists that this is an active investigation. We have a choice not to speak so as not to jeopardise our investigation. This has explained our silence over the time,” Mba said at the time.
Upon resumption of plenary session on Tuesday, the Senate, in a resolution, asked the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali, to investigate the circumstances leading to the disappearance of the journalist.
This followed the adoption of a point of order by Emmanuel Orker-Jev (PDP, Benue- North.
Citing order 42 and 52 of the Senate Rules, Mr Jev said “On October 13 between 8-9pm, Salem went missing and all phone contact with him ceased.”
He said efforts by his family, friends and colleagues to trace his whereabouts proved abortive.
The House also passed a resolution urging the security agencies to intensify efforts to locate Salem.
The resolution was a sequel to a unanimous adoption of an Urgent Motion of Public Importance raised by Ndudi Elumelu (PDP-Delta) at the plenary on Tuesday.
Elumelu said Salem reported for work on the fateful day and was last seen in Garki District before his sudden disappearance.
The lawmaker said his disappearance was immediately reported to the security agencies after all efforts by family and friends to find him proved abortive.
“In spite of official efforts by the leadership of the House to galvanise the security agencies to resolve his disappearance, there has been no headway.
“This sudden disappearance is an extension of the deteriorating insecurity in the nation’s capital and again questions the efficiency of the security operatives.
“If necessary measures are not put in place to curtail the indiscriminate disappearances of innocent Nigerians living in Abuja, the FCT would soon become a breeding ground for kidnapers and bandits, hence the need for urgent investigation,’’ he said.
The lawmaker said he was moved by emotions to sponsor the motion when the daughter of the missing journalist cried out on his birthday when she could not call her dad as usual.
Meanwhile, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has expressed his shock and sadness at the news of the death of a National Assembly Correspondent of Vanguard newspapers, the late Mr Tordue Salem.
He stated this in a statement by his media aide, Ola Awoniyi, titled, “Lawan deeply saddened by death of Vanguard reporter,” made available to our correspondent in Abuja on Friday.
Lawan said the concern of the National Assembly, when the Senate and the House of Representatives passed separate motions over the disappearance of Mr Salem, was that he was quickly found and reunited hale and hearty with his family and colleagues.
He said, “It is therefore shocking to hear that the journalist had all the while been killed by a hit-and-run driver in an accident.
“This is a very unfortunate and heart-rending development,” Lawan says.
The Senate President extended his condolences to the family of the late Salem, the management of Vanguard Newspapers, the National Assembly Press Corps and the Nigerian Union of Journalists over this sad loss.
Lawan also prayed to the Lord to comfort all the loved ones of the departed Salem and grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.
Premium Times/ The Punch/ The Guardian
