Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chapter, in collaboration with a number of human rights organizations, Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), Men Against Rape Foundation, and others, have given the Nigerian Police Force, the Department of State Security (DSS), and other security agencies 24-hour deadline to find Mr. Tordue Henry Salem, a journalist who went missing last week.
The Chairman NUJ FCT Chapter , Comrade Emmanuel Ogbeche said the Council’s attention was drawn , when the matter of Salem was brought to fore and the Council quickly alerted the Police and other security authorities, and that he has been following the situation up to this moment.
He criticized the fact that the police and other security agencies had done nothing to track down the missing Vanguard reporter covering the National Assembly.
According to Ogbeche, identifying a missing person with a cell phone and other easy-to-track equipment takes little or no work in this digital age.
He remarked that the security agencies must either produce Mr. Salem or show that he is not in their custody to the Council and the Nigerian public.
Similar cases have been cited by Comrade Emmanuel Onwumbiko, Chairman of HURIWA, in which citizens have been reported missing only to be found by the police months, if not years later, as in the case of Jones Abiri, a journalist who was detained by the police for two years without his family’s or the public’s knowledge.
Among those attending the conference are Comrade Lemmy Ugheghe of the Men Against Rape Foundation and Comrade Bunmi Haruna of the Nigerian Sports Writers Association (SWAN).
