On November 2, the International Press Institute (IPI) to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, called attention to the low rate of global convictions for violent crimes against journalists, pointing out that in at least nine out of ten cases, the killers go unpunished.
“Despite occasional, incremental progress in some cases, the fact remains that the vast majority of journalist murders around the world go unpunished,” IPI Deputy Director, Scott Griffen, had said.
Similarly, a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) revealed that 278 journalists have been killed in the last ten years and of this number, 226 murders, representing 81 percent, either remain unsolved or saw the perpetrators roaming free.
In Nigeria, there have been a number of unresolved killings of journalists, who continue to work in frightening conditions.
When Tordue Salem, the National Assembly correspondent of Vanguard Newspaper was declared missing, on October 13, everyone waited with bated breaths for his safe return, hoping that he doesn’t end up as part of the statistics.
However, all hopes were dashed on the evening of Thursday, November 11, when the news of his death broke.
This was followed by a press briefing by the police on Friday November 12, where a 29-year-old commercial driver, Itoro Clement, was paraded as the alleged hit-and-run driver who killed Salem on the night of November 13.
Journalists in Abuja, under the auspices of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), had petitioned the police authorities over Salem’s sudden disappearance.
The police, through the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), CP Frank Mba, assured that he (Salem) would soon be found and returned safely to his family.
He said the investigation was on-going and expressed the need to maintain decorum so as not to jeopardise the process.
Mba said six persons had, as at the time, been interrogated and all the places he visited after leaving the National Assembly on October 13 had been traced, in addition to speaking with the last person he encountered.
Not a few persons were, therefore, taken aback when 29 days later, the police came up with the story that Salem was run over and killed, with a suspect in tow.
The police said the late Salem’s mobile phone was traced to a garden in Mpape, a suburb of Abuja, leading to the arrest of the suspect.
In the alleged perpetrator’s account, he had knocked down someone around Mabushi area but didn’t stop as he thought the person may be a criminal and was also afraid of being attacked by other criminals in the area.
Mabushi is one of the crime hotspots in the capital city.
Itoro further volunteered that metres away from the accident spot, he met policemen at a checkpoint, told them what had happened and they advised him to go and report at the Wuse Police Station but he proceeded to Mpape, where he resides, parked his car at a public car park, Good Friends Garden, and went home to sleep.
The following day, he returned to where the car was parked and found a smashed phone on his car windscreen which he disposed of in the garden.
While it is possible that Salem may have been killed by the commercial driver, the accounts by the police and the driver leave a lot of questions unanswered, leading to the question “Who killed Tordue Salem?”
For starters, Mabushi is a den of criminals, everyone who lives in Abuja, as the suspect rightly said, knows this and Salem as a journalist certainly was aware of this.
What was he, therefore, doing loitering around Mabushi at 10pm, even though earlier reports from the police, flowing from the interrogation of a relative he was with on the evening of his disappearance, indicated that he had told her he was proceeding to Garki after flagging down a taxi for her?
When did it become the standard for the police to advise and release those who report themselves as having been involved in an accident involving human life to go and report themselves and not bother to visit the scene?
The accident reportedly happened in Mabushi. Why was the driver advised to report to the Wuse Division? Are Mabushi, Utako and Life Camp divisions not closer to the area of incident? Or is Mabushi under Wuse Division?
Those who know Mpape are aware of the nature of the road leading there. How was the driver able to drive with a phone on his windscreen all the way from Mabushi to Mpape without it falling off?
The police said after Itoro threw the phone away, it was picked by some boys who work in the garden and that they sold some of the parts and also made use of the SIM card.
How was the phone eventually traced to Itoro? Did the boys see him throw it away?
Salem’s body was found at the Wuse General Hospital Morgue.
One of the early steps that are followed when searching for a missing person include checking hospitals and morgues in the area the person was last seen.
Did the police do this in the case of Salem after his disappearance was reported?
When accident victims are taken to hospitals, the hospitals usually request a police report or company to treat the victims.
Who was/were the good Samaritans that took the corpse to the morgue? Did the hospital request a police report before accepting it or this policy does not extend to the dead?
Did the hospital report to the police that they were in receipt of a body from an accident scene? Note that this hospital shares a fence with the Wuse Police Division.
The police said at the time of the accident, Salem had on him five means of identification which could have at least given anyone who came in contact with the body an idea of the identity of the person. He had his Vanguard Newspaper, NUJ and House of Representatives Press Corps identity cards and two ATM cards all bearing his name.
Do the hospital authorities mean to say that despite all these forms of identification, they could not match the name and face to the one that had been in the news for nearly one month and reported missing? How come the hospital never pressed the bell despite the publicity and interest generated by Salem’s sudden disappearance?
Were any of the organisations that issued those means of identification contacted by the hospital?
How is the public expected to believe that the body of a person with all those means of identification was received by a hospital, cleaned, embalmed and preserved for nearly one month without any effort to find the family?
Since Itoro did not report to the Wuse Police Division as advised, how was the body eventually traced to the Wuse Hospital Morgue after 29 days?
Salem’s family said they read about the news of his death in the media.
How come no one contacted them to at least identify the body before going to town with the news?
Elder sister of the deceased, Elizabeth Kuraun, was reported to have said that the family was earlier briefed by the IRT Unit of the police that his phone had been traced to someplace in Makurdi, Benue State. Was it the same phone that was later found in Mpape or another?
The way I see it, this falls into the category of what can be described as a cock and bull story. Too many things do not add up.
Until the police give a more convincing and plausible account that answers these and so many other questions being asked by the public, we will continue to ask: Who killed Tordue Salem?
