Nigeria Content Online

Barely
three days after the murder of The Nation’s judicial correspondent, Edo
Egbagwu, the Edo State Correspondent of Vanguard Newspaper, Simon
Ebegbulem, on Monday night narrowly escaped death as he rammed his car
into the gate of a building while trying to escape from a car he said
was trailing him.

The bonnet of the Honda car was badly
damaged and Mr. Ebegbulem sustained head injuries. He is expected to
undergo scanning yesterday evening to check the extent of injuries to
his head.

Police was already informed of the incident and they have promised to investigate the matter.

The injured reporter said as soon as he left his office, along Arousa,

at about 8.30 pm on Monday, he noticed
a vehicle trailing him right from Sapele Road down to Adesuwa in GRA
and then to Ugbor Road where he lives.

“I noticed the vehicle behind me
immediately I left my office,” Mr. Ebegbulem said. “Initially, I
thought it was just any other vehicle on the road. But I became curious
when I noticed that the same vehicle was behind me through to Sapele
Road, down to Adesuwa and all the other routes I took to cut off the
bad spots and when I came out at Ugbor Road, I noticed the vehicle was
still trailing me.

I doubled my speed and quickly entered
Patrick Ehimen as a decoy and, in the process, I lost control and hit
the gate of the building and the impact on the car forced the car to
reverse itself to where I was coming from. But for the airbags, because
I noticed something like foam pushed me back to my seat when I hit the
gate, I would have sustained more injuries. I was treated and
discharged later that night. But I have to go back today for x-ray to
know the extent of injury on my head”.

The development has created fears in
the minds of many journalists covering the politically volatile state,
as many expressed fear for their jobs and lives.

Governor mourns journalist’s death

Meanwhile, the state governor, Adams
Oshiomhole has commiserated with the Nation newspapers over the murder
of Mr. Ugbagwu. Mr Oshiomhole described the killing as very
unfortunate; “I commiserate with you on the gruesome murder of one of
your reporters by yet-to-be-identified killers,” he said. ”This is a
painful death, going by the report that he was a hardworking and
experienced judiciary reporter with your organization. This latest
killing is however one too many, as Nigerians are yet to recover from
recent similar killings of Godwin Agbroko and Abayomi Adedeji of
Thisday Newspapers and Bayo Ohu of The Guardian.

“Ugbagwu’s murder is not one that
should be swept under the carpet as inaction by the security agencies
will send a wrong signal to the killers that they can always snuff the
life out of innocent Nigerians and get away with the evil act.
Nigerians should rise as one to condemn this dangerous trend where
journalists who have a dissenting voice are silenced.” Also opposition
party, the Action Congress (AC) has expressed concerns over rising
killing of journalists in the country, following Mr. Ugbagwu’s murder
as well as two others in Jos – Sunday Bwede and Natan Dabak over the
weekend.

The party via its National Publicity
Secretary, Lai Mohammed called on the security agencies to move quickly
to unravel the killings saying “it was particularly alarmed at the
shooting dead of Ugbagwu,

which followed the same pattern as the
killing of Bayo Ohu of the Guardian last year, Abayomi Ogundeji of
Thisday in 2008 and Godwin Agbroko also of Thisday before them.” The
party expressed the hope that the journalists are being targeted
because of their profession, saying such could in turn stifle the
nation’s democracy.

“The challenge, therefore, for the
security agencies is not just to find the killers and bring them to
book, but to investigate if the murders have anything to do with the
fact that the victims are media practitioners. This is important to
reassure Nigerians that members of the Fourth Estate can perform their
constitutionally-guaranteed duties without fear,” Mr. Mohammed said.

The Party said the overall implication of the rising wave of murder,
in the country is that the security situation in Nigeria is worsening
and therefore reiterated its call for a decentralized police force,
claiming the police, as presently constituted can no longer ensure the
security of lives and property.