Again, Gunmen Raid Journalist’s Home After Surviving Boko Haram Attack

From Akaa Stephen, Lokoja

Gunmen suspected to be hired assassins, Wednesday night, raided the home of embattled journalist, Okodili Ndidi, at Kwali village in Kogi State.

Ndidi who is a Defence Correspondent with one of the national newspapers, narrowly escaped death sometime in August 2022, when suspected members of the Boko Haram Sect attacked his house, at Karishi, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The journalist was out of the country for an international conference when the assailants struck.

But in an exclusive chat with Newstrack, the journalist’s wife, Ngozi Okodili, said no one was at home when the armed men invaded the house.

According to her, a neighbor called her after the attackers who were said to have come on motorcycles had left after ransacking the apartment.

She said, “we were not in the house when they came, my husband insisted that we must leave the house before he travelled because ever since our house was attacked by terrorists in August last year, we have been moving from one place to the other. Only God knows what could have happened if they had met us at home.

“I have not been to the house but my younger sister’s husband went there the morning after the incident and said they ransacked my husband’s bedroom with all the papers, including his certificates and other important documents scattered over the floor, as if they were searching for something”.

Asked if she has any idea what the attackers could be looking for, she said, “I don’t know what they are looking for, my husband doesn’t tell everything about his work, it was after the attack by the terrorists that he told me that the issue maybe related to his job. We have been moving like refugees after we left our home after the attack because strange persons have been calling my husband and threatening to deal with him”.

Meanwhile, efforts to reach the journalist were abortive as his phone lines were not reachable as at the time of filling this report.

But a Police source who didn’t want to be mentioned, said the matter was only known to the Police after it was posted on the social media by a Facebook user, adding that no official report has been made.