Unresolved murder of Idoma-born journalist, Enenche Akogwu, others, reason why Nigeria features among countries with impunity – Report

Nigeria has been ranked 13 out of 14 countries in the 2018 Global Impunity Index.

This latest ranking was released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Tuesday.

According to CPJ, Nigeria has featured on the ranking for the sixth time because of government’s failure to bring murderers of journalists to justice.

It revealed that the entire impunity index was arrived at by calculating the number of unsolved murders over a 10-year period in line with a percentage of each country’s population.

For this edition, CPJ analysed journalists’ murders in every nation that took place between September 1, 2008 and August 31, 2018.

Within the period of ranking, Nigeria has had five unresolved murders of journalists. The five cases are: Bayo Ohu of The Guardian was killed on September 20, 2009, in Lagos; Enenche Akogwu of Channels TV killed on January 20, 2012 in Kano while covering Boko Haram crisis; Nathan S. Dabak, of The Light Bearer killed on April 24, 2010, in Jos; Sunday Gyang Bwede also The Light Bearer killed on April 24, 2010, in Jos and Zakariya Isa of Nigeria Television Authority murdered on October 22, 2011.

So far, nobody has been brought to justice by the Nigerian authorities in the murder of these journalists who were killed in connection with their job.

Somalia tops the list, followed by Syria and Iraq. South Sudan takes the fourth place with Philippines and Afghanistan taking fifth and sixth positions.

Other countries on the list are Mexico, Colombia, Pakistan, Brazil, Russian, Bangladesh, Nigeria and India.

The Impunity Index is published annually to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists on November 2. The Day was instituted after the UN General Assembly endorsed it in 2013.