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VETERAN JOURNALIST KILLED

Police in Nigeria are investigating the murder of veteran journalist Godwin Agbroko, who was shot dead in the city of Lagos on 22 December 2006, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF).

Agbroko, 53, was found dead at the wheel of his car shortly after he left his office in the district of Apapa. It remains unclear whether he was killed because of his work as a journalist.

Agbroko wrote a regular column for the privately-owned newspaper "This Day" and was the chairman of its editorial board. He edited several newspapers during the 1993-99 military dictatorship, and was detained at least twice in 1995 and 1996.

In 1997, PEN American Center awarded him its prestigious Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award.

Newspaper offices and journalists have been targeted by deadly robberies in recent weeks, note CPJ and RSF.

On 25 December, armed robbers invaded the office of the newspaper "Vanguard" in Onitsha state and killed a circulation assistant.

Omololu Falobi, a founding member of Journalists against AIDS, died in October from injuries sustained in an armed robbery in Lagos.

Visit these links:
- IFEX Alerts on Nigeria: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/62/
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/africa/nigeria26dec06na.html
- RSF: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20251
- This Day: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=66791