Who killed Jerry Agbeyegbe?
THE sudden death, on October 12, 2004 of pilot and aviation safety activist, Jerry Agbeyegbe, is a tragedy to the country and an irreparable loss to the aviation industry. Agbeyegbe's life can be said to be short; sadly too short for the benefit that could still be tapped from him by the aviation sector. But his life was eventful. He was particularly committed to his profession, as he sought, quite regularly, improvement from all stakeholders. Certainly, the abrupt termination of his life is a big blow to the aviation industry, his family and friends.
More tragic however, is the mystery surrounding his death. This has become a major issue, following police report that he died in an accident; while medical report later confirmed speculation that he was assassinated. The speculation itself was fuelled by the existence of a gaping hole, believed to have been caused by bullets, in the front windscreen of Agbeyegbe's car. In addition, his body was perforated in 29 places with bullets, nine of which have been reportedly extracted. In the circumstance, the public outcry of foul play over Agbeyegbe's death is substantially justified. That suspicion will not be erased until law enforcement agencies answer nagging questions that have subsequently cropped up over the captain's death.
Reports pieced together from his family and the police indicated that Agbeyegbe was working on his computer up to 2.30 am on Tuesday, October 12, 2004. At 4.a.m, one of his sons, who discovered that his father was no longer in the residence on Victoria Island, concluded that he must have gone out. Police said that at about 3.05 a.m. that same day, they heard a loud bang on the Alapere end of the Third Mainland-Oworonshoki Expressway. Upon getting there, they found a car involved in a "lone accident," with the person driving already dead. The police eventually deposited his corpse at Isolo General Hospital. Cause of death was thus given as "fatal accident," as Agbeyegbe's BMW car was said to have run into a culvert. The police said they took into custody a lady, name " Juliet Okonkwo, described as a "call girl", who was sitting by Agbeyegbe in the car.
The failure of the police to mention that there was a single large hole on the windscreen and multiple entry wounds on the right side of Agbeyegbe kicked off the controversy on the captain's death. These marks were quite visible and even before autopsy, required no expert scrutiny to show that they were those of gunshots.
Attempts by the police to wriggle out of the subsequent posers, have been most unimpressive. At the last count, the police have simply pleaded for more time to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident. We consider it unacceptable that the police, whose personnel are most equipped to detect and unravel crime, did not consider the bullet marks before posting a verdict of death by accident. It is most disheartening that more than a week after Agbeyegbe's death, the Lagos State Police Command is seeking public understanding that the investigation might take longer than expected, "one year, two years or more..." We think that there is no better way to sound the death knell of an impending investigation than the police conduct so far.
By all means, Jerry Agbeyegbe was not an ordinary pilot. He was an experienced and vocal one; a man who was never willing nor ready to side-track safety standards in the industry. Till death, he remained firm and principled, while he doggedly pursued his interest through a number of private organisations, including Nigeria Aviation Safety Initiative (NASI). Naturally, his comment, and criticism of policies and events in the aviation sector could have set him on a collision course with powerful interests. This fact ought to be sufficiently obvious to the police before they announced what has turned out to be a shoddy and suspicious obituary. The police should have taken more than a passing interest in reports that, days before Agbeyegbe's death, some aviation activists received death threats. It would be instructive to know if Agbeyegbe was one of the recipients of the threats. Who are the others threatened, by whom and why? These are pertinent questions begging for thorough investigation.
The law enforcers' explanation about Juliet Okonkwo is also less than satisfactory, if not contradictory. This is a lady supposedly picked up by Agbeyegbe at about 2.30 am. in Sanusi Fafunwa Street, Victoria Island. Yet, barely 30 minutes later, the girl was so "drunk" she did not know what happened at the time of the "accident." In another breath, the police tried to impress that the girl slept off or was found "unconscious". It sounds rather implausible that a call girl would be so relaxed in the company of a stranger in the dead of the night, that she would sleep off within 30 minutes.
These are just some of the questions arising from Agbeyegbe's death. His colleagues at the NASI, which he co-founded, have in fact raised 29 questions (one for each of the bullet holes on Jerry's chest), which we believe are very pertinent and require answers. For instance, how come the police quickly determined that Agbeyegbe was dead and sought to keep him in a mortuary; while determining that the girl was simply unconscious and what she needed was police custody rather than a hospital?
There is need to clarify how the girl managed to go unscathed in the face of many bullets pumped into Agbeyegbe who was supposed to be sitting only inches away; moreso when she was sitting directly behind the big hole on the windshield. And now that it has been established that there was definitely a shooting in addition to the accident angle initially canvassed by the police, there is need to know which came first: the accident, or the shooting?
Equally important are the questions: who fired the gun that killed captain Agbeyegbe? Who actually is Juliet Okonkwo, now that she is the only surviving witness of the events leading to Jerry's assassination? Is there no need for her to do a public testimony, if only to disabuse people's mind of any complicity by the authorities? And now that there is an attempt to insinuate that the gun marks on the late captain were inflicted by a dane gun; or that he might have been killed by vigilante group, the police should explain the possibility of a dane gun causing the extent of damage recorded on Agbeyegbe and his car.
Naturally, the public is curious also about the unusual interest of the State Security Service (SSS) in the matter. The secret service men were reported to have swarmed the hospital in which Agbeyegbe's body was kept and attempted to cart it away. Their presence was visible at the press conference addressed by the family. And they were said to have attempted either to stop or to intercept the release of autopsy report to the family.
Why is this so? The public will be entitled to speculate on a link between Agbeyegbe's assassination and the SSS, unless there is an adequate explanation on this unusual SSS concern. Without such explanation, the only seed that is sown in public mind and consciousness is the fear of the SSS and the phobia of state oppression, all of which could lead to a gradual drift to anarchy.
In view of the totality of circumstances surrounding Agbeyegbe's death, the police is faced with a serious challenge to unravel the mystery. And this should be done urgently, not in "one year or two years" being sought by the Lagos command. With so many homicide cases such as those of Bola Ige, Aminasoari Dikibo, Harry Marshall and others unresolved, a non-resolution of the true facts of Jerry Agbeyegbe's murder will go a long way to deepen public anxieties about the safety of human lives.
