Lagos NUJ to Police IG : Revisit Cases of Slain Journalists

REVISIT CASES OF SLAIN JOURNALISTS , LAGOS NUJ URGES POLICE IG The Nigeria Union of Journalists , NUJ , Lagos state council has called on the Acting Inspector General of Police , Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar , to revisit the cases of journalists killed in the Centre of Excellence in the last few years Its Chairman , 'Deji Gbolahan Elumoye , who made the plea in Ikeja yesterday at the public presentation of a 141-page book-The Journalist's Wife- written by Mrs.Ochuko Ohu , the widow of slain Assistant News Editor of The Guardian , 'Bayo Ohu said apart from the killing of Mr. Dele Giwa , the pioneer Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch magazine through parcel bomb in Ikeja on October 19 , 1986 , several other journalists had been killed in the course of carrying out their official duties The slain journalists , according to him , include Godwin Agbroko , late Chairman , Editorial Board of ThisDay , Sule Edo , Judicial Correspondent of The Nation , Abayomi Ogundeji , member of the Editorial Board of ThisDay and Bayo Ohu Elumoye said since the assassination of the aforementioned journalists nothing positive has been done to unravel the killers of ''these crop of seasoned journalists'' He , therefore , called on the new Inspector-General of Police to as a matter of urgency re-open the cases of all these slain journalists so that the cases will not be swept under the carpet His words : ''The new IG being a crack and seasoned police officer should prove his worth by calling for the files of all the slain journalists, thank God at a particular time he was Commissioner of police in Lagos so we believe with his latest elevation he is now more in a position to ensure that justice is done in the case of these our late colleagues ''It is our hope that the Police IG can assign the cases to tested detectives who we also believe will get to the root of the murders so that those who perpetrated the dastardly act can be brought to book no matter how late'' The Lagos NUJ Chairman also used the forum to ask the federal government to unlock the press centre at the presidential lounge of the Murtala Muhammed airport in Ikeja shut against airport correspondents since February 4 , 2012 According to him , for over five weeks now , journalists covering the aviation beat have been denied access to the public facility at the Ikeja airport and up till now nobody in government has come up with a reason for the eviction of our members from the press centre ''Government did not stop at that but also locked up the working tools of our members including cameras , laptops , midgets , i-pad and palmtops and ever since our members have not had access to these equipments'' , Elumoye further said