Gunmen kill freelance journalist, Titus Badejo in Ibadan

The Oyo State Police Command, has revealed that a freelance journalist, Titus Badejo, popularly called Ejanla, was shot dead on Saturday evening.

According to a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer of the state command, Adewale Osifeso, Titus was shot dead in front of a club in Oluyole Ibadan on Saturday.

The gunmen who were four according to reports arrived at the place on bikes and shot him at a close range.

Badejo’s killing came exactly a week after he celebrated his birthday in the same hotel.

The statement by the police spokesperson read, “At about 0730hrs, Sunday 20th June 2021, One Damilola Afolabi ‘m’, Manager at Club 407, Oluyole Ibadan reported at Oluyole Divisional Police Headquarters that on Saturday 19th June, 2021 one Titus Badejo, Journalist and Freelance Disc Jockey with the club was shot outside the club premises by unknown assailants.

“However, comprehensive investigations are in top gear to unravel circumstances surrounding the incident and to apprehend the assailants.

“Verifiable updates would be provided soonest.”

This is not the first time a Journalist is being attacked or killed in Nigeria – in April 2021, the Committee advocating for the protection of Journalists had called on Nigerian authorities to thoroughly investigate the attack on journalist Frederick Olatunde Odimayo and hold those responsible to account.

On April 16, in Lokoja, the capital of the northwestern state of Kogi, five men attacked Odimayo, a freelance reporter and editor with the privately owned broadcaster Grace FM, beating him until he lost consciousness, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview.

Odimayo said he was at a car repair shop at about noon when the group of men approached him and accused him of destroying their drug trafficking business with his reporting. They proceeded to beat him for about 15 minutes, until one of the journalist’s colleagues intervened and stopped the attack, according to that colleague, who spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal.

Odimayo said he regained consciousness later that day at a hospital in Lokoja, where he remained in recovery for 24 hours; he told CPJ yesterday that he still experiences headaches from the attack and has sought further treatment in his hometown in Ondo state.