On January 20, 2012, Enenche Akogwu, a 31-year-old reporter with Channels Television, was killed right outside the Kano State government house while on duty.
The broadcast station announced his death a day later, saying unknown gunmen, believed to be members of the Boko Haram terror group, opened fire on him while he was interviewing witnesses of a terror attack in the city.
The sect earlier bombed parts of the city and took responsibility for the action.
Akogwu joined and began reporting for the company’s Abuja office in 2010 but soon became a Kano correspondent.
His reporting earned him the Channels Television’s 2011 Chairman’s award, a title he received during the station’s end of year celebration.
“My love for Nigeria has been a compelling impetus charting the course of my life courageous in the face of adversities, hopeful when confronted with despair and delighted when the society makes appreciable progress,” the station quoted him as saying before his demise.
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In the same month he died, Irina Bokova, the then Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), condemned his killing and the January 18 killing of Nansok Sallah, a 46-year-old news editor of Highland FM in Jos, Plateau State.
“This crime constitutes a serious attack on the basic human right of freedom of expression and press freedom,” Bokova said of their killings.
“I call on the Nigerian authorities to investigate these killings. Journalists must be supported in their mission to sustain informed public debate in the interest of democracy and rule of law.”
Despite widespread condemnation and calls for investigation, these killings remain unresolved.
In October 2020, eight years after this shooting, Pelumi Onifade, a journalist with Gboah TV, died after task force officials shot him in Lagos State.
Five years after his death, there remains no conclusive trial to put the perpetrators behind bars for the crime.
Several other journalists have lost their lives in the course of doing their work, and others have suffered arrests and harassment as Nigeria continues to endure a declining reputation in press freedom indices.
The post 13 Years On, Channels TV’s Enenche Akogwu’s Unresolved Killing Highlights Threats Journalists Face appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.