NTA reporter shot dead in Benin

Nigerian police

A reporter with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Benin, Lawrence Okojie, was shot dead by gunmen on Saturday night in Benin, Edo State capital.

Okojie was reported to have been killed around Ogunola Junction, off Siluko Road in the ancient city.

Spokesman of the state police command, Moses Nkombe, who confirmed the report, said one person had been arrested in connection with the incident.

The late Okojie, who was dropped off by NTA staff bus at Ogunola Junction around 8pm on Saturday, had reportedly called his wife on phone and informed her that he was on his way home.

It was, however, several hours later that the wife, after repeated calls to his phone without any response, raised the alarm that her husband, who was supposed to have arrived home, could not be reached.

It was gathered that some of his colleagues at NTA, who joined some family members on a search mission, discovered his corpse in a morgue in Benin.

The circumstances surrounding his death were not immediately known, but the police have promised to thoroughly investigate the matter.