Edo NUJ tasks security agencies on member’s killers

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The late Okojie

It was a black Saturday on July 8, 2017 for the pen profession in Edo State, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and the family of Okojie in Olinlin-Uzea, Esan North East local council, as 33-year-old Lawrence Okojie, was shot by yet to be identified gunmen. He was just six years with NTA Benin.
  
He had closed from work that day after covering the convocation ceremony of Benson Idahosa University and was dropped in his bus-stop few metres from his house. He was said to have called his wife who was then pregnant that he was already in the area and would get home soon.
  
But that was never to be as Okojie was shot shortly after he was dropped and his body later deposited at the morgue by the police. The wife gave birth few days after his killing.
  
His body was laid to rest at the weekend in his village. His aged mother in between sobs said Lawrence was the only eye left for her to see. She said she had been frying garri over the years and that it was Lawrence who not long ago told her to stop the trade and started sending contributions for her upkeep.
   
At the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council Secretariat, where his body was brought for last respect, the leadership of the union, led by Sir Roland Osakue, tasked security agencies in the state to fish out his killers.
  
Osakue wondered why security agencies in the State were yet to arrest the killers of the NTA worker over one month after. He called on the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris and heads of other security agencies to provide adequate protection for the citizens, especially media professionals.
  
At the Service of Songs held the NTA Benin premises, the Director General had announced automatic employment for his widow as soon as she completes weaning her new child.
 
There was no reported autopsy to help in identifying the kind of bullet used in shooting him, which many believed would have helped security agencies in their investigation, but the Edo State Police Commissioner, Haliru Gwandu, recently paraded 70 suspected armed robbers, cultists and kidnappers, where he disclosed that one of the killers of Okojie have been arrested.He claimed that the killing was cult-related as suspected cultists were fighting in the area on the day of the incident.