Kunle Akogun, Oma Djebah
24 December 2001
Lagos And Osogbo — Federal Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige was last night shot dead in his bedroom at his Bodija, Ibadan residence in an apparent assassination.
It was gathered that the gun men shot the Cicero of Esa Oke at about 9.00 pm with a single bullet to his heart. He had returned from Lagos at about 8.30pm, family sources told THISDAY and asked his security men to go and have their dinner as he retired upstairs.
The gunmen who may have been waiting in the vicinity then stormed the house and tying up family members, got one of them to lead them uptstairs to the room of Chief Bola Ige where they led his wife and son to an adjourning room and locked them up.
The gunmen then met Ige alone in the bedroom and shot him with a single bullet in the heart, family sources said.
He was then left on the floor as the gunmen made their way out without stealing anything. However when one of the granddaughters raised an alarm, family members rushed to his room and then rushed him to the hospital. He died on his way to the Oluyoro Catholic Hospital, Ibadan.
Only last week, the late Ige narrowly escaped being mobbed at Ile-Ife by an irate crowd that removed his cap and smashed his pair of medicated glasses. The incident happened within the premises of the palace of the Ooni of Ife Oba Okunade Sijuwade shortly after the conferment of the chieftaincy title of Yeye Oranmiyan of Ile-Ife on the wife of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Stella.
He was however lucky to have escaped being injured by the angry mob.
His attack may not be unconnected with his unwavering support for the Osun State governor, Chief Bisi Akande, who is locked in a battle of wits with his deputy, Iyiola Omisore, an Ife indigene.
The Akande-Omisore imbroglio has recently taken a new twist following attempts to commence impeachment proceedings against Omisore at the State House of Assembly.
This led to fracas on the floor of the House with many of the lawmakers getting bruised.
And last Wednesday, a prominent member of the House representing Ife Central Local Government area was matchetted to death by people believed to be political thugs.
The legislator, Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju, was said to have been accosted by a group of young men who beat and dealt several cuts on him. It was gathered that the late lawmaker ran into the assassins who had apparently laid ambush for him at the scene of the incident when he was returning home.
Chief Ige's assasination may have changed the tone of an extraordinary meeting convened by the Afenifere leader, Chief Abraham Adesanya for Thursday at his Ijebu Igbo country home.
Apparently worried by the recent spate of bloody clashes in Osun State, the Pan-Yoruba organisation expressed its determination to restore peace and normalcy to the beleaguered state and scheduled a meeting to this effect for Thursday
This extraordinary meeting is coming on the heels of renewed public condemnation of the bloody crisis in Osun. The latest came from Internal Affairs Minister, Chief Sunday Afolabi at the weekend when he warned the leadership of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to desist from turning the state into a bloody battlefield.
The bloody conflicts in Osun have claimed some lives including that of Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju, representing Ife Central in the state House of Assembly. The news of his murder last Thursday had been greeted by arson and violence as both parties to the crisis engaged each other in a fight to finish.
Competent sources told THISDAY that Afenifere, obviously worried by this development had raised a peace committee which has former External Affairs Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi and Second Republic Governor of Kwara State, Chief Cornelius Adebayo as members to probe the crisis.
It was gathered at the weekend that apart from Governor Bisi Akande and his deputy, Chief Iyiola Omisore, who have been summoned to appear before Afenifere, others billed to attend the crucial meeting include deputy leader of Afenifere and Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige (SAN), Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Chief C.O. Adebayo, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, Chief Supo Shonibare, Chief Ayo Opadokun, amongst others.
"The situation at hand demands urgent intervention, hence this meeting was called. Papa Adesanya is expected to be back to preside over it. The Governor of Osun State will also return to attend," said a source within Afenifere.
Meanwhile, more reactions continued to trail the murder of Hon. Odunayo Olagbaju just as tgovernor was said to have resolved to cut short his trip to abroad for medical check up.
The governor's Chief Press Secretary, Mr Lani Baderinwa, said Akande would be home "any moment from now", adding that the governor had instructed his doctors to suspend further medical tests on him so that he could come home to attend to the crises.
Baderinwa's press statement at the weekend came on the heels of the news that the presidency may have summoned the governor back home via the nation's embassy in London.
Chief Afolabi warned that Federal Government would not tolerate the use of violence to settle political scores.
Afolabi who was speaking on the death of Olagbaju and the various clashes, admonished AD against turning Osun State into a battlefield.
The minister while speaking at a reception organised for the Deputy National Chairman of PDP (South) Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun in Osogbo said the news of the death of the AD lawmaker was a rude shock.
"We should all support President Obasanjo now to nurture the democracy we have to maturity. What the nation needs this time around is peace and understanding and not disorderliness and violence of any kind," he said, adding: "PDP should not be dragged into the issue by the leadership of AD."
Speaking in the same vein, the PDP Deputy National Chairman called on the leader of Afenifere, Adesanya, to wade into the crises without further delay noting "everybody should be thinking of development now and not violence as this is not okay for the nation."
Also reacting to the chaos, the AD Senator representing Osun West in the Senate, Chief Sunday Fajinmi said the National Assembly would look into the matter with a view to investigating it.
Fajinmi who spoke to the press in Iwo, described the situation as "shocking" adding that "a lawmaker is a lawmaker and as such the National Assembly would take it up."
While recalling chains of events that preceded Olagbaju's death, he said all hands must be on deck to prevent the political imbroglio of the 60s which led to arson and murder from repeating itself.
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