NUJ FCT, CSOs give Police, DSS 24-hours to produce missing Vanguard reporter

The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), FCT Council, and a coalition of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have given the Nigerian Police, the Department of State Security (DSS) and other security agencies 24-hour ultimatum to produce a Vanguard Newspaper reporter Tordue Henry Salem who went missing on Wednesday last week.

The Union and the CSOs, including Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), and Men Against Rape Foundation, handerd the ultimatum, Wednesday, at a press conference organised by the NUJ at the Council Secretariat in Utako.

The Union had in an earlier statement tasked security agencies in the nation’s capital, Abuja, to be decisive in locating the Benue-born journalists, who until his disappearance covered the House of Representative and was last sighted on Wednesday evening.

Speaking at the press conference, the NUJ FCT Chairman, Comrade Emmanuel Ogbeche, informed journalists that the Council informed the Police and other security agencies immediately the case of Salem was made known to the Council and has been following the matter up.

He lamented the fact that the Police, DSS, and other security agencies have so far, not done anything to unravel the whereabouts of the missing reporter, just as he wondered why it was taking so much time for the agencies to locate a missing person who has a mobile telephone and other facilities which are easy to track in this digital age.

He said the onus was on the security agencies to produce Mr. Salem or prove to the Council and the Nigerian public that the journalist was not in their captivity, citing similar cases where citizens have been reported missing, only to be found to have been in the custody of the DSS and Police after some months and in some cases, years, like in the case of Jones Abiri, a journalist who was detained by the DSS for two years without the knowledge of his family and the public.