A Nigerian journalist, Tordue Salem who has been missing for weeks, have been found dead in Abuja, the country’s capital city.
The body of late Salem, a reporter with theVanguard was found yesterday, Thursday, by 9.30 pm.
Late Salem who was covering the House of Representatives, was last seen on October 13, 2021. 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.
An alarm on his mysterious disappearance was raised the next day, from where the matter was directed to the Intelligence Response Team , IRT on October 16, 2021.
The Abuja chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ has been calling for the identification of the journalist and had organised a press conference where the chairman of the council, Emmanuel Ogbeche had accused the country’s security agencies of complicity for failing to take action to find Salem in spite of various information passed to them on the matter.
Subsequently, the NUJ had organised a peaceful protest at the Force Headquarters of the Nigeria Police in continued efforts to push authorities into action.
In response, Frank Mba, a commissioner of Police and Force Public Relations Officer had addressed the protesting journalists, saying it was not true that the security agencies were doing nothing to locate Salem. He further promised that the Vanguard reporter would be found in no distant time.
It is not yet clear at the time of filling this report the exact location where his remains were found or the circumstances of his death.