Nigerian journalist found gagged and hacked to death by mysterious assailants

Maxwell Nashan, a journalist with the nationally-owned Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), has been found dead and hidden in a bush in the Girei Local Government Area of the eastern state of Adamawa.

According to reports from various international and local news sites, it is not yet known what might have spurred a group of assailants to pick Nashan up from his home.

The journalist was found by a few farmers on their way to their farms.

Premium Times quoted a colleague of Nashan, Fidelis Jocktan, who said the deceased had been planning for his wedding.

“They did not take anything from his house. They took him away and dropped him near the station tied up and unconscious,” said Jocktan.

“There are signs of beatings and cuts on his body. Some women going to the farm saw him and reported to civil defence operatives at the station who rushed him to hospital,” he added.

The Committee for Protection of Journalists (CPJ) urged Nigerian authorities to bring the perpetrators to book.

“At least five journalists, not including Nashan, have been killed in relation to their work in Nigeria since 2010. The country ranked twelfth on CPJ’s 2019 impunity index, which highlights countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free,” said the CPJ.