The last time I saw Abayomi Ogundeji, the slain Editorial Board member of THISDAY newspapers was at the Guild of Editors election at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja on July 28. That was barely three weeks before his gruesome murder on August 17.

A jolly good fellow, he was, as usual, full of beans and good humoured. And, of course, he was hale and hearty. We discussed briefly, not about death but the future of our profession - journalism - and our country - Nigeria.

That was the first time we were seeing since I came back from the United Kingdom last year. He told me he had joined THISDAY and was happy to be back in the newsroom. Despite the shenanigans of our leaders, he was confident that Nigeria will, sooner than later, assume its rightful place in the comity of nations. Such was his abiding faith in the destiny of this country. I left shortly after voting and we agreed to keep in touch.

Sadly, we won't. Why? Abayomi is dead, cut down in his prime by devil incarnates for reasons best known to them. But reasons that will always defy logic.

The sad thing in this saga will not necessarily be that the country Abayomi believed so much in has let him down by failing woefully to safeguard his life, the primary responsibility of any government that is worth its name, but the possibility that even in death, he is most likely to be denied justice. He is dead and nothing can ever bring him back to life. But if his murderers are arrested today and brought to justice, that will at least assuage the pains of those he left behind. They deserve a right to know why he was killed, an answer which can only be provided by those who killed him. And that can only be if they are arrested. The question is, will they?

Not many believe that they will, more so, since Abayomi has become the latest national argument just like Godwin Agbroko, Funsho Williams, A. K. Dikibo, Marshall Harry, Omololu Falobi and a host of others before him.

By the time he is buried on Thursday, he will become another footnote in our national calendar of tragedies. And we will all be waiting for the next victim. The family members will be left to bear the scar of this benumbing loss alone.

But the least this country owes him and indeed all of us is to find out who killed him and why. Was he killed by the police as claimed by some "eyewitnesses" or by armed robbers as claimed by the police and their own "eyewitness"? I am sure that if it is the Inspector General of Police's son, the Chief of Defence Staff's son, the Senate President's son, the President's son, etc., that was gruesomely murdered, either by policemen or armed robbers, whether deliberately or accidentally, the culprits would be arrested. So, why won't they when the victim is an ordinary citizen like Abayomi?

The way the police invoke the armed robbery alibi to explain away every mysterious murder case creates the impression that the state has given armed robbers the licence to kill and maim their victims. They tend to create the impression that the populace ought to understand that it is the right of armed robbers to kill. This is worrisome, more so, when the "armed robbers" are never caught at the end of the day. They simply disappear into thin air.

It is also troubling that in almost every case of murder where the police had latched onto the armed robbery theory, they did so even before kick-starting investigation. Agbroko's body had hardly gone cold before the police pointed fingers of blame at phantom armed robbers. Almost two years after, no "armed robber" has been brought to justice. Poignant message! Armed robbers have a licence to kill in Nigeria and, therefore, if you are foolish to allow yourself to be killed by them, you have died for nothing.

The same logic has been brought to bear on Abayomi's case. Even before his body went cold, another armed robbery theory was sprung to explain away the murder. When "eyewitnesses" alleged otherwise, the police came with their own "eyewitness", Alhaji Suraju Azeez Afolarin, who claimed that he watched armed robbers snuff life out of him. Never mind that, as he claimed, when the armed robbers left him and his wife and drove off with their Muraino jeep, and having witnessed the shooting of a fellow citizen, rather than go to a police station to make a report, the couple, as traumatised as they were supposed to be, went home instead to sleep, perhaps soundly, and only lodged a report the next morning.

Now, assuming this implausible account turns out to be true, does it not say something about the value we place on human life? Azeez and his wife saw armed robbers shoot Abayomi and from all indications, he was killed instantly. Azeez must have noticed that Abayomi's car did not move when they zoomed off. Shouldn't he have reasoned that the man was most likely in distress, and in dire need of help, and therefore go straight to the police who may have wished to rescue him? No. He went home and slept peacefully without sparing a thought for a fellow human being. But was there ever an Azeez at that point in time?

Abayomi may well have been killed by armed robbers who were angered by his "stubbornness", and who felt that the appropriate punishment for ramming into and denting the jeep they wanted to sell was summary execution but it behoves the security agents to arrest and prosecute them. Parading 20 "eyewitnesses" with incredible stories cannot assuage the anxiety of the people. Instead, it will heighten the bourgeoning conspiracy theory. Arresting some hapless Area Boys and parading them as the culprits will not do either.

Again, those who claim to be more patriotic than the rest of us will argue that there is no society without criminals, which of course, is true. It may well be true, as they are wont to argue, that more people are murdered in the South African city of Johannesburg or in New York in the U.S. in a month than the whole of Nigeria in a year, but the difference remains that in all these places, such crimes do not go unpunished. The state in any country that lays claim to development ensures that no man takes the life of another without punishment no matter how long it takes.

Here in Nigeria, the police are creating the impression, sadly, that some people have been given the licence to kill without repercussion because they are armed robbers. Sadly, too, a regime that deludes itself about aspiring to be one of the world's 20 biggest economies by the year 2020 does not seem to appreciate the strategic role security of lives and property play in confidence building and attraction of capital - both foreign and local - into the economy. Many Nigerians in the Diaspora today would, despite the challenges of infrastructure, gladly come home to invest if they are sure they would not be killed wantonly by "armed robbers" like Abayomi.

The Nigerian State owes itself a duty to solve the mystery of Abayomi's death, not because he was a journalist, but because he was a human being who had an inalienable right to life. The questions - who killed him and why - must not be allowed fizzle out as mere argument.