Channels Television has confirmed the death of a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Precious Owolabi serving with the organization.
The 23-year-old was said to have died of a gunshot wound he sustained while covering the clash between the police and the Shiite protesters on Monday in Abuja.
The management and staff of Channels Television in the announcement on its website expressed sadness by the untimely and unfortunate death of such a promising journalist.
They pray that God will grant his family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss, and avail his soul eternal rest.
In response to Owolabi’s death, Director of the International Press Centre, Lagos, Lanre Arogundade wrote in a facebook post:
The RIP we shouldn’t be saying!
I hate it, I just hate it whenever a journalist gets killed in the course of duty. I hate it the more when such death is caused by the lawlessness and indefensible intransigence of a few.
Now in tears, I go to bed, for Precious Owolabi, a youth corps member with Channels TV, is no more. Let those who justify impunity continue to do so.
But they need to be reminded that when the bird precariously perches on the rope, neither the bird nor the rope can find peace.
It would have been good if it is only those who sow the wind that reaps the whirlwind. From Precious to DCP Umar, suddenly there is a harvest of preventable deaths.
