Police have detained a commercial driver accused of being responsible for Vanguard Journalist, Tordue Salem’s death.
According to Channels Television, Itoro Clement, a 29-year-old commercial driver, was paraded in Abuja on Friday.
Clement was arrested, according to the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, following an investigation by the Force Intelligence Bureau.
Clement, who was driving a 2004 Toyota Camry with the license plate BWR 243 BK, admitted to hitting Tordue around 10:00 p.m. on the night of October 13, 2021, in the Mabushi neighborhood of Abuja, but fled.
Clement Itoro acknowledged to hitting an unknown pedestrian at about 10:00 p.m. the same day Tordue Salem went missing while speaking to journalists during the parade.
He claimed, however, that he did not pull over to help his victim because he was frightened of being ambushed by armed robbers.
“I thought it was an armed robber that I knocked down until the following day when I saw a smashed phone on my windscreen. The phone was not working again so I threw it away.
“The place I knocked this person down, is a criminal place everybody knows that place,” he said.
After traveling for a few miles, the 29-year-old commercial driver came across a Police Checkpoint and informed the officers on duty that he had hit down someone.
They instructed him to report himself to the Wuse Police Station, but he refused and proceeded straight to Good Friends Garden, where he usually parked his car before heading home to his bed.
How Suspect Was Arrested – Police
Frank Mba, the Force Public Relations Officer, detailed how Clement Itoro was apprehended to press.
He said the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) detectives initiated an investigation into Late Tordue’s disappearance, which led to the discovery of his phone in Good Friends Garden, Mpape, Abuja.
According to Mr Frank, “when Clement hit Tordue, the victim’s phone, an iPhone fell on the car’s wheel screen. The suspect however disposed of the phone at Good Friends Garden where he usually parked his car. But the phone was picked by some boys working in the garden and some parts of the phone were sold by the boys.”
He did say, though, that the guys tried to make calls using the SIM cards, which made it easier for the cops to track down the phone.
Further investigations led to Clement’s arrest, according to the police spokesman.
He also revealed that Late Tordue’s body was discovered in the Wuse General Hospital Morgue in Abuja at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, November 11, 2021.
During a search of the body, he said that a Keystone bank debit card, a Union Bank debit card, an ID card issued by Vanguard Newspaper, a NUJ ID card, and a temporary ID card from the National Assembly Media Corp, all bearing the late journalist’s name, were discovered.
However, journalists at the scene asked why the management of Wuse General Hospital (where Tordue’s body was found) did not report the incident all the while since documents belonging to Late Tordue were on him.
They also asked if the Police were going to involve the hospital management in the prosecution.
In response, the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, stated that after all the facts of the case have been obtained, the Police will address issues of carelessness on the part of the hospital administration and even the police officers at the Wuse Checkpoint on the night of the accident.
