Altar-ready FRCN journalist abducted, hacked to death in Adamawa

A renewed wave of armed banditry and kidnappings in Adamawa, Northeastern Nigeria has claimed the life of a journalist, Mr Maxwell Nashan, who was preparing for his wedding.

Nashan, who was abducted from his home in Yola, the state capital by some yet-to-be identified assailants, was abandoned few hours after near his office with machete cuts.

The journalist, who worked for the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) F.M station, popularly known as Fombina FM in Yola, was picked up lifeless with his mouth sealed with tape and taken to the hospital by some security operatives following a report by some women.

But he did not make it as he was confirmed dead on arrival at the hospital, according to the Adamawa State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr Donald Dedan.

Grief-stricken Dedan has, therefore, urged the police and other security agencies in the state to fish out the killers of Nashan and bring them to justice.

He decried what he called the growing cases of insecurity, particularly kidnapping and banditry in Adamawa, and called for serious measures to curtail them.

The State Secretary of NUJ, Mr Fidelis Jocktan, who is a colleague of the deceased, disclosed that Nathan was preparing for his wedding when he was hacked down at his residence in Bachure area of the metropolis.

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

“There are signs of beatings and cuts on his body. Some women going to farm saw him and reported to Civil Defence operatives at the station who rushed him to hospital,” Jocktan said.

The spokesman for the command, DSP Suleiman Yahaya, said he was yet to get details of the incident but promised to make the “details of investigation’’ available to the public as soon as possible.