The Guardian
September 20, 2009, in Lagos, Nigeria
Ohu, a 45-year-old assistant news editor at influential private daily The Guardian,
was shot dead September 20 by unidentified gunmen as he answered a knock at the
front door of his house in a northern suburb of
Ohu was preparing to head to church to meet his wife at the time, and two of his five children were in the house, local journalists told CPJ.
Neighbors quickly realized Ohu was still alive after being shot several times and drove him to a nearby local hospital after the gunmen left, according to local journalists. According to news reports, staff at a local hospital refused him entry since he did not have a signed release form by the police. Neighbors tried to rush Ohu to another facility but he died before they reached another hospital, local journalists told CPJ.
Ohu started as The Guardian’s state correspondent for
Although no direct motive has been identified between his reporting and the
murder, journalists at the Nigerian Union of Journalists told CPJ they strongly
suspect Ohu was killed for his political reporting—the murder may be linked to
his investigation into a report on fraud in the Customs Department, they said.
Ohu was also allegedly reporting on the rerun of the
Medium: Print
Job: Editor, Print Reporter
Beats Covered: Politics
Gender: Male
Local or Foreign: Local
Freelance: No
Type of Death: Murder
Suspected Source of Fire: Unknown Fire
Impunity: Yes
Taken Captive: No
Tortured: No
Threatened: No
