Barely Month After Disappearance, Vanguard Correspondent Found Dead

Barely a month after correspondent of Vanguard Newspaper, Tordue Salem, was nowhere to be found, his remains was on Thursday found at a yet to be disclosed area.

Salem who was last seen alive around Total filling station, close to the Force headquarters, Abuja, on October 13, 2021.

Details surrounding the recovery of his corpse remain sketchy, according to a report by the newspaper.

Some persons, including one Prince Enyenihi, have reportedly been arrested in connection with his disappearance.

Enyenihi was said to have contacted the deceased’s wife to demand a N100 million ransom.

“If you don’t pay, Tordue will be killed in seven days. For more information, call this number,” Enyenihi was said to have said in a text message sent to Salem’s wife.

Arrest

Some arrests were reportedly made. Among them was that of a man who was picked for attempting to extort Salem’s family.

The suspect identified as Prince Enyenihi, 25, contacted Mrs Salem on October 26, 2021, via a text message with a concealed number, requesting for N100 million ransom, to be paid as ransom for her husband’s release. Part of the text message read: “if you don’t pay, Tordue will be killed in seven days. For more information, call this number …. The text message also contained an account number the money should be paid into.

This was followed by a call with a concealed number to Salem’s wife the next day,. Mrs Salem requested to speak with her husband, to ascertain he was alive before negotiation would begn. But the caller gave the phone to someone who tried to play along.

When she noticed that the voice did not sound like her husband’s, she asked the stranger to mention the name of their daughter and her birth date, a question that met dead silence at the other end.

Same evening, another call with a concealed number was received by Mrs Salem, requesting to know if her husband had been released. The confused woman was said to have requested why the caller had his number concealed.

On October 27, another text me came on a bulk text message platform, ordering the family to pay the N100 million ransom before the next day, failure of which they would kill Salem.

The Police swung into action first, by de-encrypting the number that called and traced its owner to a lady in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

However, during interrogation the lady who owns Joy Skin Care denied culpability, stating rather, that a particular number had been calling her line since October 26, 2021.

Vanguard further gathered that when on further checks operatives discovered that the number was same with that used to contact Mrs Salem , consequent upon which 25-year-old Enyenihi was arrested on November 5, 2021.

During preliminary investigation, it was discovered that he was next door neighbor to the beautician. During interrogation, he disclosed that he got information of Vanguard reporter’s disappearance on a flyer that went viral on social media, which had the number of Mrs Salem as the contact person to report to if found.

The suspect further stated that he sent the text messages without the knowledge of his female neighbour, adding that he got his neighbour’s telephone number and account details from her Facebook page .

He said, “I knew the family wouldn’t pay the money. I used the owner of Joy beauty skin care ‘s account details in order to punish her for always talking to me anyhow”.

The Police described the arrest as a distraction from what they were looking for.

Attempt to reach to the Force Public Relations, Officer, Frank Mba proved abortive as at the time of filing this report