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Ige and justice
After 18 months of legal rigmarole, an Ibadan High Court finally delivered judgement on the celebrated murder case preferred against former Osun State Deputy Governor, Chief Iyiola Omisore. In his judgement, Justice Akin Sanda discharged and acquitted Omisore of killing Chief Bola Ige, the nation�s former Justice Minister and Attorney General, on the grounds of �contradictions and inconsistencies in the case of the prosecution and on the totality of evidence.� The trial judge described Police investigation as shoddy, and faulted the contradictory positions of the investigating Police officers called as witnesses.
Following his murder on December 23, 2001, public expectations were high that Chief Ige�s killing would be diligently investigated by the Police and meticulously handled by the judiciary, given the new democratic order and Ige�s position as a serving Justice Minister. Though the Police had said then that the murder was politically motivated, the tell-tale signs of intrigues and cover-ups became profound immediately investigations into the case began. Mr. Haz Iwendi, the then Police spokesman, had, curiously, claimed that Ige�s security aides at the time of his murder were only being held for dereliction of duty. Iwendi had dismissed insinuations of their complicity in the crime. This was followed by a gale of transfers and deployments of Police officers that showed any trace of determination to thoroughly investigate the crime.
Mr. Mike Okhuo, the then Police Commissioner, Oyo State Command, was redeployed after he declared the testimony of a self-professed suspect as �coherent and sane.� Likewise, Mrs. Abimbola Ojomo, a Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) handling the case, was sent on course in France after which she was eventually retired; while Mr. Musiliu Smith, the then Inspector General of Police, lost his job the day he promised to brief the nation on the murder case. As the Police dug deeper into the internal confusion, a Lagos-based human rights lawyer, Mr. Festus Keyamo, who had assisted another suspect declared wanted by the Police, Mr. Damola Olugbenga Adebayo (alias Fryo), to give himself up, suddenly became a victim of Police harassment and intimidation.
At a point, the case file became a subject of damning controversy between the Police High Command and the Oyo State Government. When the file finally surfaced, Mr. Bayo Lawal, the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, said the outcome of the Police probe provided no legal proof, based on credible evidence, which could ensure a successful prosecution of the suspects, as such elementary requirement as endorsing statements taken from the suspects was not done by the Police.
The puzzling intrigues continued during the trial, with the recant in court of Andrew Olofu, the late Ige�s personal security aide, who denied ever identifying one of the suspects as the one who pulled the trigger that silenced Ige, contrary to his initial position. There was also the sudden withdrawal of Justice Moshood Abass on the grounds of receiving threats from unexpected quarters. Who issued those threats and on whose behalf was the pressure mounted on Justice Abass? The death of Justice Atinuke Ige, the late Justice Minister�s widow, and the hounding into self-exile of his son, Muyiwa, finally led to the decision by the Ige family to express lack of confidence in the trial.
Given all this, it was, therefore, not surprising that Justice Sanda�s ruling on the Ige murder case ended the way it did. Least strange was the judge�s far-reaching indictment of the Police on their messy handling of the investigations. Indeed, the court ruling is a vivid confirmation of the suspicion that the masterminds of the murder were powerful untouchables. The question, however, remains: Who killed Chief Bola Ige? The unresolved murder will remain an embarrassment to the Federal Government, which Ige dutifully served, unless justice is done and seen to have been done.
The Punch, Friday July 16, 2004
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