Four men and a woman were last night being questioned by police investigating the murder of Sunday World journalist Martin O’Hagan.

The well-known reporter was gunned down as he walked home from a Lurgan pub with his wife in September 2001.

The arrests took place in Lurgan and Banbridge and were carried out by the PSNI’s Retrospective Murder Review Unit.

The five were taken for questioning to the Antrim Serious Crime Suite.

Mr O’Hagan was known for covering stories involving paramilitaries and drug-dealing.

An inquest into his death held in 2006 concluded that he had been targeted for exposing the drug dealing activities of loyalist paramilitaries in Mid Ulster.

The 51-year-old and his wife Marie were walking home from a night out in a pub on September 28, 2001, when a car pulled up alongside them and a passenger shot him three times.

During the inquest Mrs O'Hagan's recalled her horrific memories of her husband being shot as they approached their home hand-in-hand.

“I became aware of a car slowing down. I saw a gun in one of the windows,” she said.

“Martin became aware of the car and pushed me towards the hedge. I fell into the hedge and heard a number of shots. Martin shouted ‘Marie, get an ambulance',” she said.

Mr O’Hagan was declared dead by an ambulance crew which quickly arrived at the scene.

The LVF later claimed responsibility for the killing although no-one has ever been brought to justice for it.