CSO seeks probe as activist makes fresh claims over journalist declared missing in 1996

The Journalists for Democratic Rights (JODER), a civil society organisation (CSO), has called for an investigation into the comments made by Mahdi Shehu, medical practitioner and activist, on the disappearance of Bagauda Kaltho, a journalist.

Kaltho, a journalist with The News magazine at the time, was said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1996.

The journalist’s disappearance has been greeted with a number of conspiracy theories as there are claims that he was killed in a bomb explosion at Dubar Hotel in Kaduna in 1995.

There are also claims that the journalist was allegedly killed during the military regime of Sani Abacha.

Shehu, in a recent interview with ARISE TV, claimed he refused to take a parcel bomb given to him by Russel Hanks, identified as an American ex-envoy, at Hamdala Hotel in Kaduna, in 1995.

Shehu alleged that the envoy said he should take the parcel bomb to Durbar  Hotel, Kaduna, adding that after he rejected the parcel, Kaltho came into the hotel room of the envoy and hours later, a bomb explosion occurred at the hotel.

Reacting to Shehu’s comments, JODER, in a statement by Adewale Adeoye, its executive director, said the activist has added a new twist to the “unresolved murder” of Kaltho with his recent comments.

The group asked the national assembly to institute a judicial panel of inquiry to investigate the claims made by Shehu.

‘Dr Shehu’s fresh attempt to link the death of Bagauda Kaltho to an official of the United States Embassy has raised fresh concerns not only about the heinous crime committed against the late Kaltho, but also against the Nigerian media. This is one issue that should not be allowed to go unprobed,” the statement reads.

‘It looks too curious that an American diplomat would work so openly, handing over a parcel bomb to someone he met in a few days and sounds difficult to believe that the official, even if he was a secret agent, would make himself so vulnerable to easy exposure by a relatively unknown third party.

“But if this was the case, Shehu needs to come forward with more information that will help unravel the murder of Kaltho.

“It is also curious that while Shehu claimed he reported the issue to the late General Sani Abacha, the same dictator did nothing about it to expose the alleged conspiracy knowing the bitter feud at that time between Abacha and Western nations.

‘It raises serious suspicion that Shehu claimed he shared the information only with the ruling brutal military regime at the time but not with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), any media rights group, nor any civil society organisation at home and abroad.

“JODER calls on the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and all media institutions to rise up to the occasion that should help unravel one of the most grievous crimes in the history of the Nigerian media.”