Posted by 9jabook.com on September 22, 2009 at 3:57am
Forty-one year-old Bayo Ohu, an assistant political editor of The Guardian was shot in the early hours of Sunday by gunmen suspected to be assasins.
Police sources said the bandits stormed the journalist’s No 9, Oyeniyi Street, Odukoya estate residence at the about 7.00 a.m. and forced their way into his apartment. They were said to had demanded for cash and other valuables which the journalist readily obliged.
After collecting the cash he had, they picked his lap-top before releasing some bullets into his stomach. He was said to had slumped and died almost immediately.
According to witnesses, men dressed in white jalabia (flowing gowns) and wearing caps, arrived in a white Toyota camry at 6.53am, and stormed Mr. Ohu’s residence. When they eventually found him with a wrapper tied around his waist, one of the armed men began to shoot at him. The assailants allegedly followed him as he stumbled back and kept pumping bullets into him.
Neighbours say during this attack, the deceased’s wife, Ochuko, had gone to church with her sister who lived in with them, leaving the late Ohu, his daughters and one other relative at home. None of them was however around the compound when the killers entered.
According to his daughter, 15-year-old Omolara Ohu, “We were coming from where we had gone to fetch water, when we heard the gun-shots and ran back. Later, we came to the compound and found blood everywhere. The neighbours now came and brought out his body. There was blood everywhere,” she said, crying.
She said a neighbour who saw the shooting told her that the initial hail of bullets left Ohu shouting: “E gba mi o! E gba mi o! (Please save me, please save me). Afterwards, she said one of the armed men was heard saying: “Olori buruku yen ti lo” (That idiot is gone).
Miss Patience, the late journalist’s sister said nothing was taken apart from his laptop and his cell phone.
“They took the laptop he uses at home, but they left his office laptop and midget recorder,” she said.
However, reports said while the attack was going on, a neighbour had put a call to the police, but the bandits had successfully made good their escape before the police arrived.
But a team of anti-robbery squad on routine patrol in the area were reported to have given the armed gang a hot chase, forcing them to abandon their get away vehicle and fled.
Ochuko, wife of the late Bayo Ohu. The deceased inset.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, confirmed the incident but said it might be a case of assassination. Mba said the police had recovered the vehicle, an unmarked Toyota Camry used for the attack, assuring that a manhunt for the perpetrators had since begun.
In a related development, a team of anti- robbery squad from the Area E Command, Festac town Lagos has arrested two armed robbers in the area.
The suspects identified as Andrew Ilouere and Chinedu Nwokolie were arrested along the Lagos-Badagry expressway moments after they had successfully robbed one Paschal Anyawu.
They were said to have collected an un specified amount of money and other valuables from the victim but ran into the waiting hands of the patrol team.
Reports said when they were searched, a locally made Guardian Newspapers with some live cartridges were recovered from them.
The police image maker also confirmed the arrest, adding that the suspects would be transferred to the SCID Panti, Yaba, Lagos for further investigation.
This is the third time in as many years that a Nigerian newspaper journalist has been shot dead in similar circumstances.
In 2007 and 2008, Godwin Agbroko and Abayomi Ogundeji, both of the private Thisday Newspaper, were also shot dead by unknown gunmen in Lagos.
The two deaths have yet to be unravelled. Bullet hole at Bayo Ohu's house
Mr. Ohu joined The Guardian in 1993 after completing his national youth service in Katsina State. He was the correspondent of the paper in Katsina until 2002 when he became assistant news editor and was recalled to the head office in Lagos. He was seconded to the politics desk in 2008. He is survived by a wife and children.
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