Tordue Salem, the missing Vanguard reporter was reportedly found dead by the police. But the body doesn’t look like him
There is still no closure on the missing Vanguard reporter, Tordue Salem, whom the police say has been found dead.
The family of Tordue Salem said they could not confirm if the corpse seen at the Wuse General Hospital morgue was that of their son.
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Police, however, said they found his body in Wuse General Hospital morgue in Abuja after 30 days of his disappearance.
A report in the Vanguard quoted the police authorities, at a press conference on Friday in Abuja, saying that family members had identified Salem’s body.
The Force Public Relations Officer, FPRO, CP Frank Mba, said the late journalist was killed by a hit-and-run driver on the night of October 13, 2021,the day Salem went missing.
But, speaking to Sunday Vanguard, yesterday, Mrs Elizabeth Kuraun, sister of the deceased, and her husband, Dr. Jeffrey Kuraun, said that they were yet to be formally briefed on the details of the police investigation.
Mrs Kuraun said she didn’t believe the narrative by Mba on the circumstances that led to the death of her younger brother.
Her words: “Tordue has a daughter that is five years old. She’s crying and praying for daddy’s spirit to please rise up. I don’t believe one single thing that the police said because Frank Mba contradicted himself with this news they brought. The day that NUJ protested at the police headquarters, he came out and said they were investigating. A journalist died and the pictures were seen at a scene where the person was wearing a vest and they picked the person with his ID cards, 5 ID cards including two ATM cards.
“His name was written on those ID cards and Nigerians were crying in the print media, the social media, television stations that they should help find this missing person. His name was written in newspapers, on national television and on blogs everyday but somebody, somewhere carried his ID cards bearing Vanguard Reporter. The news that was on the air said ‘Vanguard journalist, covers National Assembly”’. Whoever picked him saw his NUJ ID card, saw his National Assembly ID card and, in 28 days, the person did not come out with this thing? I don’t believe that story they told yesterday.
“Even the man they said is a hit-and-run commercial driver couldn’t even remember the day he hit the person and ran away. He first said 13th of August and then changed his mouth to 13th of October. It doesn’t add up. No matter how Tordue was hit, they should show us his clothes and shoes. They should show us what he was wearing that day. Not verbally going tot national television. And up till now that I am talking to you, they announced it on Thursday, we saw it in the papers that he was dead, they didn’t even contact us. People were sending it. The police did not have the decency to inform the family that wrote to them? DSS didn’t even do anything to trace Tordue.
“Another confusing thing is that IRT at a time told us they tracked his phone to Makurdi in a particular place. This was IRT telling us this, that they even picked someone that called him. Were they lying to us all this while? If somebody hit him and ran and his phone was in Abuja, why did it take them so much time to collect the call log? They told us that Tordue’s phone was in Markudi. Were they lying then? Or they didn’t track? And the same phone fell on somebody’s car? Which one should we believe? The one that got stuck somewhere or the one they said was tracked to Markudi? That was what they told us verbally. So, it’s confusing to me……
Read full report in Vanguard