BOLA IGE:TWELVE YEARS AFTER

On Monday, it will be 12 years since former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige, was murdered in cold blood. Omololu Ogunmade and Chiemelie Ezeobi revisit the intrigues that characterised the investigation into his murder, trial of suspects, and recall how the clamour to bring the killers to justice has remained unfruitful

It’s twelve years since the brutal murder of Chief Bola Ige, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice in the administration of the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Chief Ige was cut down in his Bodija, Ibadan home on December 23, 2001 at the age of 71. His was one of such high profile killings that shook the nation.

Sadly, twelve years after his assassination, the long wait for the unmasking of his killers is obviously not coming to an end anytime soon as no new leads have been uncovered.

Initial arrests and the twists

The greatest puzzle of Ige’s murder is that more than a decade after his assassination, there is no clue about who killed him. The initial attempt to unravel Ige’s killers remained one of the most controversial issues in Nigeria’s history. Twenty four hours after the murder, the Federal Government, in which Ige served, ordered the then Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, to immediately fish out his killers. That order resulted in the declaration of one Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, nicknamed Fryo, wanted. He was described as the prime suspect by the police. At the height of the manhunt for Fryo in 2002, he reportedly gave himself up as he allegedly walked into the chamber of a Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Fetus Keyamo, where he was said to have confessed that he was contacted for the murder of Ige, but added that he was not the one who eventually pulled the trigger.

In his confession, Fryo alleged that the then Deputy Governor of Osun State, Iyiola Omisore, contacted him for the job.
Eventually, the trial of Fryo began. But shortly after his confession which calmed the tension created by the death of Ige, Fryo retracted the confession, sending a shock wave across the polity. This fuelled beliefs that certain powerful forces were behind the killing and they would do everything within their reach to frustrate moves to unravel the truth.

While the country was still hurt by the denial of Fryo’s earlier confession, Keyamo’s younger brother, Lucky, brought another twist into the saga, when he alleged that the confession made by Fryo was doctored by Keyamo in his unquenchable search for popularity. It was in the midst of the ridiculous confusion over the trial of suspects in the saga, that Ige’s wife, Justice Atinuke, died. Her death was believed to have been caused by the inconsistencies that characterised the confessions of the suspect undergoing trial.

While the drama unfolded, Omisore was impeached by Osun State House of Assembly. Less than 24 hours after his impeachment, he was arrested by the police and expectedly, his trial began. Interestingly, Omisore was still in prison custody, when he was declared the winner of Osun East senatorial district election in April 2003. Although the judge initially handling the prosecution of Omisore had stated that he had a case to answer, he was eventually discharged and acquitted at the end of the trial, when another judge proclaimed that evidence against him were mainly circumstantial.

Also, the lead prosecution counsel, Chief Debo Akande (SAN), whose withdrawal from the case was announced by the Oyo State government, proceeded on a trip to London where he died in a hospital. In the heat of the trial, Justice Olagoke Ige who was the first judge to handle the case abandoned it over alleged threats to his life. Consequently, Justice Moshood Abass took over the case. But by the time the trial ended, all the accused were set free, leaving the family of Ige to contend with the agony of perceived injustice.

But there was another twist in the efforts to unravel the killers of Ige. The then Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, declared the case file of Ige’s murder closed. But his successor, Mike Okiro, later debunked reports that the file had been closed. Former President Obasanjo even added another angle to the Ige murder saga when he said the former Attorney General may have been killed by a drug baron. The former president’s expression enraged Ige’s family, to such an extent that his first daughter, Mrs. Funsho Adegbola, alleged that Obasanjo made that statement because he was being haunted by the ghost of her father.

Having lost hope in the probe into his death, Ige’s family announced its withdrawal from the trial, alleging a plot to frustrate efforts to bring his killers to justice. The family said it was evident that justice would never come its way from the way the matter was being handled and that it took consolation in the fact that God’s judgment which could not be manipulated, would come one day.

Unending Calls for Justice
Since he was murdered, activists had been marking the anniversary of Ige with lamentations that years after the gruesome murder of the politican, the murderers do not only walk freely on the streets, but are also powerful forces in the country.

During one of such anniversaries, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, President of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), said the development was sad and worrisome. She called on the then President Umaru Yar’Adua to ensure that killers of Ige were fished out and accordingly brought to justice.

“As we mark the Anniversary of Ige’s murder, we call on President Umaru Yar’Adua who has the rule of law as one of his seven-point agenda to institute a fresh probe into Ige’s murder so that the perpetrators of the heinous crime can keep their date with the law,” the statement quoted Odumakin as saying.

“CD is worried that seven years after the brutal assassination of Ige (SAN), justice has yet to be served the former Justice Minister. It is a sad commentary for justice administration in Nigeria that a camel would easily pass through the eyes of a needle than the perpetrators of political killings to be apprehended. The irresistible conclusion is that the ‘nest of killers’ is so entrenched and pulling Nigeria by the jugular and would not allow its activities to be exposed,” Okei-Odumakin lamented.

In the same vein, President of the United Action Democracy (UAD), Comrade Abiodun Aremu, recalled how Soyinka alleged during the lying-in-state of Ige at the Liberty Stadium, Ibadan that the murderers were among those shedding crocodile tears at the event.

He lamented that Ige’s killers now walk freely without any challenge, regretting that such killers were even parts and parcels of the government of the day. He also alleged that successive inspectors general of police as well as top police officers could not deny knowledge of Ige’s killers. Aremu however, ended his comment with a prophetic undertone, saying though Ige’s murder case might have been closed by the police, some day, the people would re-open the case.

Now a Cold File?
Police sources on Friday said the case file had been labeled cold due to the long period of his death.
Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said the case was as good as dead because time has destroyed whatever evidence they might have gathered.
The source said, “We call such cases cold files because of the years that have elapsed. We can’t even reopen it because time has taken care of whatever fresh evidence we might have gathered again.”

But in a phone interview with THISDAY, the Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, a Chief Superintendent of Police, debunked claims that the case file had been closed.
He said, “The case is still very open and we would continue from where we stopped once we get fresh evidence or lead which would help us unravel the case.

“Contrary to claims that the case died when the Investigation Police Officer (IPO), Abimbola Ojomo, an Assistant Inspector General of Police, was unceremoniously retired, case is still very open because the police does not rely on an individual to work accordingly.
He said, “The NPF is not dependent on an individual, rather it is a group-oriented organisation. So the fact that whoever started the investigation was retired or removed does not make the case a closed one.

“The truth remains that any point in time the police stumble on any new information, we would pick up the file and continue investigations.
“Therefore, if we get any new and relevant information, we would gladly continue investigations from where we stopped the last time.”

Juxtaposing such cases with what is sometimes obtainable in advanced countries, Mba said there were some cases that took the police up to 10 or 20 years to crack before the culprits were found.

He said, “Recently in the US, some women were rescued after being incarcerated for a decade and the police kept the file open till the day they were discovered, so it is not peculiar to Nigeria.

“Again, this issue is not just about Bola Ige. There are other similar cases which the police still have the case files open pending the day solutions would be arrived at and acted upon.”

He also called on members of the public or sources who have any or further lead that would help unravel the case to come to the police, who would happily act on such information.

SOURCE:www.thisdaylive.com