The Coalition of South East Youth Leaders, (COSEYL) the umbrella body of all the youth groups in the South East geopolitical zone has disagreed with the police on what killed Vanguard’s reporter,Torlue Salem.

In a statement on Friday by the President General of the group, Gooluck Ibem, the group described police report of his death as “tales by moonlight” and alleged that there was high conspiracy involved in his death.

Goodluck urged the police to dig further and unravel the true cause if his death and bring all those involved to book. He emphasised that the killing of the journalist is a form of gagging the press which he appealed to the authorities not to allow that to happen.

“The assassination of Salem is wickedness of the highest order and we condemn it in strongest terms. The perpetrators no matter how highly placed must be brought to Justice.

“The gruesome assassination of Salem contravenes the commitment undertaken in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to protect everyone’s freedom of opinion and expression and to create the conditions for its effective exercise, and mindful that this right is an essential prerequisite for the progress and development of a democratic society, governed by the rule of law and respect for human rights,” Goodluck stated.

He however added that “from all indications, the gruesome assassination of Salem is a calculated attempt by some power brokers to intimidate the men of the fourth realm from performing their civil duties and responsibilities.

“The entire process sounds like tales by moon light. For the police to find the corpse of Salem means that some suspects involved in the murder of Salem took them to the place where they kept his corpse. We want the police to tell us who the suspects are? Who hired them to kill Salem and the reason why he was murdered?

“There is no killing without a motive. Salem is a professional journalist and not a common criminal that will be assassinated over sweets or biscuits. We demand that the police must expose and bring to Justice all the actors involved in the murder of Salem Torlue.

“We want to let the Federal Government, state governments and all state actors to know that we will not entertain any form of impunity against journalists. The tales by moon light story on Salem is totally unacceptable to us.

“We call on the Inspector General of Police IGP Usman Alkali Baba to within three working days make public, the names of those involved in the gruesome killing of Salem or we will lawfully occupy the Nigerian Police Force Headquarters, Abuja until the needful is done.

“The entire scenario surrounding the sudden disappearance and death of Salem Torlue shows that there is a high powered conspiracy and the conspirators and perpetrators must be brought to Justice. We call on the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, NUJ, Scholarships, and all Nigerians to rise up in defence of our democracy.

“Injustice against one is Injustice against all. The gruesome murder of Torlue Salem by enemies of our democracy is totally unacceptable. The apple of our democracy’s eye has been touched by enemies of our Society and we will not take it lying down.

“We call on the International community and the United Nations to come to the aid of Nigerians before our journalists and media practitioners are wiped out by some anti-democratic forces that are hell-bent on truncating our democracy for their selfish and pecuniary gains,” Goodluck said.

(The Sun)

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