The sister to the late Vanguard reporter, Tordue Salem, has mocked the report that her brother was killed by a hit-and-run driver, describing it as a “doctored movie by Nigerian police.”
An indigene of Benue State, Salem who covered the House of Representatives He was last seen on October 13, 2021. He was found dead on Thursday, November 11 in Abuja.
Taking to Facebook on Friday evening, Mrs Elizabeth Jessica Kuraun, the sister expressed doubt about police investigation into her brother’s death.
“I watched the doctored movie by Nigerian police and I laughed. How can you knock someone down, and you will not know the date,” she wrote.
Before then, the Nigeria Police Force said Thursday it has arrested a commercial driver, Itoro Clement, suspected to be responsible for the death of a Vanguard reporter, Tordue Salem.
Parading the suspect before newsmen at the force headquarters in Abuja on Friday, November 12, the spokesperson of the force, Frank Mba, said Clement was arrested following an investigation carried out by the Force Intelligence Bureau.
According to Mba, Clement who was driving a 2004 Model Camry with number plate BWR 243 BK confessed to having hit Tordue at about 10:00 pm on the night of 13th October 2021, around Mabushi area in Abuja after which he ran away.
The police, according to him, swung into action shortly after Tordue was declared missing and a major breakthrough was made after Tordue’s phone was found at a motorpark in Abuja.
When interrogated, Clement said he was driving when he knocked the deceased down. He mentioned that he did not stop to check his victim for fear he might be attacked as the area was notorious for criminal activities.
“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.”he said
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.
He said after the accident, he met some police officers at a checkpoint and told them what happened. He said the police officers advised him to report the matter at the Wuse police station but he never did.
On November 2, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, had said all hope was not lost in finding the missing reporter.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Journalists has called on President Muhamamdu Buhari to order an independent investigation into the death of journalist, Salem.
The union, along with parliamentary reporters, queried the claim by police authorities that their missing colleague, was killed by a hit and run driver.
Emotions as the news of the mysterious and suspicious death of missing parliamentary reporter, Tordue Salem, gets back to his colleagues.
Clad in black, the reporters mourn. Then, prayers are said for the repose of his soul.
Soon, news filtered in that the police paraded a suspect who allegedly killed him. The journalists say many questions beg for answers and insist the claims by the police do not add up.
They called on the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure justice is served.
Thereafter, the angry journalists marched to the Utako office of the FCT NUJ with a letter demanding that the killers of Tordue Salem be found and prosecuted.
