Kaltho was gruesomely murdered in 1995 by the military junta of late Sani Abacha during the June 12 struggle.
Nigeria’s foremost media rights, Journalists for Democratic Rights, (JODER) has faulted claims by a Nigerian medical doctor, Mahdi Shehu, suggesting he knew how and why a journalist, Bagauda Kaltho, was killed.
Kaltho was gruesomely murdered in 1995 by the military junta of late Sani Abacha during the June 12 struggle.
In a statement on Friday, JODER called on the National Assembly to institute a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to investigate Shehu’s claims so as to know the facts about the murder of the journalist.
The medical doctor who spoke in an interview on Arise TV early this week had claimed he refused a parcel bomb given to him by one Russel Hanks and left Nigerians with the impression that Kaltho was later given the parcel bomb by the American which led to his death.
“Dr Shehu’s fresh attempt to link the death of Bagauda Kaltho to an official of the United States Embassy has raised fresh concerns not only about the heinous crime committed against the late Kaltho but also against the Nigerian media. This is one issue that should not be allowed to go unprobed,” JODER said in the statement signed by its official, Mr Adewale Adeoye.
The group said Shehu's position had added a new twist to what had remained an unresolved murder and that it should be in the interest of free speech to the media to pursue every angle of the murder to its logical end.
JODER said for now, the medical doctor left many gaps in his story which made his conclusion to appear questionable and therefore the group called for further investigations by independent parties so that those responsible for Kaltho's death would be held accountable based on convincing evidence.
The rights group said Dr Shehu’s claims were too plain to be believed especially his statement that the American gave him a parcel bomb to attack Durbar Hotel in Kaduna in June 1995 for N1million.
JODER said, “It looks too curious that an American diplomat would work so openly, handing over a parcel bomb to someone he met in few days and sounds difficult to believe that the official, even if he was a secret agent, would make himself so vulnerable to easy exposure by relatively unknown third party. It is difficult to believe that the political attaché of the US would personally hand over a parcel bomb in a public place like Durbar Hotel without even the fear of a setup by the Nigerian state.
“But if this was the case, Shehu needs to come forward with more information that will help unravel the murder of Kaltho
“It is also curious that while Shehu claimed he reported the issue to the late General Sani Abacha, the same dictator did nothing about it to expose the alleged conspiracy knowing the bitter feud at that time between Abacha and Western nations.
“It raises serious suspicion that Shehu claimed he shared the information only with the ruling brutal military regime at the time but not with the Nigerian Union of Journalists, (NUJ), any media rights group nor any civil society organization at home and abroad questioning the character of Shehu, his background, what he stands for and the interest he represents.
“Shehu owes the Nigerian media broader explanations why he did not come forward during the Oputa Panel to speak on Kaltho’s death and why he had to wait for 27 years. The group said Shehu should come up with coherent and indisputable evidence, else he would leave the media and Nigerians with the strong suspicion that Kaltho’s death was being used to reap cheap political gains.
“Unless Shehu establishes a more a realistic proof, two issues will be associated with his statement: a conscious attempt to promote some political interests and an unhidden intention to destroy the legacy of forces that fought against the draconian military regime that stunted Nigeria in the 1990s which prompted the emergence of pro-democracy forces supported by democratic nations, including but not limited to the United States.”
The group added that Shehu should be held accountable by Nigerian journalists to explain in full the circumstances of his position and if possible if there were other hidden motives unknown to Nigerians.
Kaltho was a correspondent with The News Magazine and until now was believed to have been murdered through a bomb linked to state authorities, during the brutal reign of the late General Sani Abacha.