Abducted TV presenter Latest: "No clue to Alhaji Razaq Gawat’s whereabouts" - Police

The Lagos State Police Command has said there is no clue yet on the popular TV presenter, Alhaji Razaq Gawat, who has gone missing since July 10.

Despite that, the police said they had not reached a dead end as investigation was still ongoing.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide said, “What we did was to see whether the fingerprints found on his car would match those of the arrested suspects but none matched.


“All the suspects arrested were picked on circumstances and they have all been released when there was nothing linking them with the incident.

“No clue was left on the man’s vehicle. The vehicle was carefully parked off the road and there was no sign of struggle in it. With this, we cannot say he was abducted. We are still treating the case as that of a missing person.”

Braide added the fingerprints analysis was done at the Police Force Forensic Laboratory, Lagos. 

Gawat, who is the anchorman of an Islamic TV programme during Ramadan, E didè e ji sari, a broadcast programme on Nigerian Television Authority Channel 10, was suspected to have been abducted around Apongbon-end of Eko Bridge, Lagos Island.

The victim’s car was found but no contact was made with his family.

Explaining how Gawat’s vehicle was found, General Manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, Mr. Babatunde Edu, had said officials of LASTMA recovered the abandoned black-coloured 4RUNNER Toyota SUV with number plate RE 77 AAA at 11:45p.m on July 10.

According to him, the vehicle was parked close to the kerb with no sign of accident except that the hazard light of the vehicle was on and the four doors locked.

“Our officials, thinking that the unknown occupant(s) had run out of fuel and had gone to source for same or in dire need of assistance, and to ensure the safety of the occupant(s) and also render assistance if need be, formed a search group to look out for the owner of the vehicle,” Edu said.

He added that the search went on for over an hour with no trace of the owner.