- Tordue Salem has been missing since October 13
The Senate on Tuesday mandated the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba to, as a matter of urgency, direct a special investigation into the circumstances surrounding the whereabout of the missing Journalist, Mr. Tordue Salem.
The chamber made the call amid a resolution after a point of order raised by Senator Orker-Jev Emmanuel Yisa (Benue North-West) to draw the attention of the Senate to the disappearance of the reporter who covered the National Assembly.
Tordue Salem reported for work on the fateful day and was last seen in Garki District before his sudden disappearance.
Coming under order 42 and 52 of the Senate Rules, Senator Yisa noted that Tordue Salem, before going missing, was a journalist with the Vanguard newspaper covering the House of Representatives.
According to the lawmaker, on October 13, 2021 between 8-9pm, the said Tordue Salem went missing and all phone contact with him ceased.
He lamented that efforts by his family, friends and colleagues to uncover his whereabout or what may have happened proved abortive.
He, however, expressed optimism that with the intervention of the Senate – the highest lawmaking body in the matter – the police may be better persuaded to get to the root of his disappearance, so to alleviate the anxiety of all concerned.
In the same vein, the House of Representatives has urged all security agencies in the country to investigate and find Mr Salem, who is a member of the House of Representatives Press Corps.
The resolution was sequel to a unanimous adoption of an Urgent Motion of Public Importance raised by Rep. Ndudi Elumelu (PDP-Delta) at the plenary on Tuesday.
The lawmaker said his disappearance was immediately reported to the security agencies after all efforts by family and friends to find him proved abortive.
“In spite of official efforts by the leadership of the house to galvanise the security agencies to resolve his disappearance, there has been no headway.
“This sudden disappearance is an extension of the deteriorating insecurity in the nation’s capital and again questions the efficiency of the security operatives.
“If necessary measures are not put in place to curtail the indiscriminate disappearances of innocent Nigerians living in Abuja, the FCT would soon become a breeding ground for kidnapers and bandits, hence the need for urgent investigation,’’ he said.
The lawmaker said that he was moved by emotions to sponsor the motion when the daughter of the missing journalist cried out on his birthday when she could not call her dad as usual.
The house resolved and mandated committees on National Intelligence, Police and Interior, to interface with the service chiefs so as to find the missing journalist.
