A Nigerian journalist who went missing last month in the nation’s capital has been found dead, killed by a hit-and-run driver, police said Friday. 

Tordue Salem, a parliamentary reporter with the independent Vanguard newspaper in Abuja, was last seen on October 13 after leaving the national assembly building. 

Efforts by family, friends and colleagues to locate the reporter were unsuccessful until his body was discovered on Thursday. 

National police spokesman Frank Mba told reporters in Abuja that the hit-and-run driver who killed Salem had been arrested and had confessed. 

Mba said that after the 29-year-old suspect, Clement Itoro, hit the reporter, “the victim’s phone, an iPhone, fell on the car’s windscreen.” 

Police investigators were able to track the phone and therefore the suspect to where he parked his car. 

The newspaper also confirmed the recovery of Salem’s body in a hospital in Abuja. 

Two weeks ago, journalists in Abuja had staged a protest to demand Salem’s release, fearing he might have been targeted by security forces. 

The protest came at a time of growing insecurity in Nigeria, where abductions for ransom are on the rise.
…