Daily Independent (Lagos)
Hakeem Jamiu
13 January 2009
opinion
Babafemi Ojudu, Managing Editor of The News Magazine and an indigene of Ado-Ekiti was about embarking on a trip to Ekiti to attend a meeting when his wife asked him in Yoruba, se Ekiti ti won ti n paniyan yen ni e tun nlo? (Are you going to that Ekiti that is a haven for killers?) But he assured her nothing would happen to him.
I cannot but express my disgust and pains through my writings about what a dangerous place my own dear native Ekiti had become since 2003 when the mainstreamers hijacked the leadership of the entire south west.
Before then, Ekiti was the most peaceful state in Nigeria and residents could go to bed with their two eyes closed. However all that changed with the advent of the PDP fascist-like regime in 2003 when all the noble core values hitherto identified with Ekiti were replaced with anything goes and - 'the end justifies the means' syndrome. Since then, assassination and attempted assassination of political opponents debuted in Ekiti and this has continued till now. Only last week, the twin brother of the erstwhile Chairman of Ado-Ekiti Local Government, Kehinde Fasubaa, General Manager of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Abuja, who was holidaying in his town, Ado -Ekiti, was gunned down by yet to be identified killers few meters to his house. The killing of Kehinde Fasubaa has all the trappings of a political murder.
Eye witnesses during the assassination recounted that it was like a scene from a movie. Kehinde and three other occupants of his car were blocked by the assailants (six in number) who were in two 2008 Toyota Camry models and ordered them out of the car. Immediately Kehinde was identified by the assailants, other occupants were told to lie face down while Kehinde was dragged to the middle of the road and shot several times. The assailants were said to have waited for about five minutes to watch him die before escaping with his car.
Residents who watched the horror movie in disbelief did not know who was killed but one passer-by later identified Kehinde and raised an alarm but it was too late as Kehinde gave up the ghost few minutes after being taken to the Hospital. The assassination threw the whole town into mourning and confusion. Angry youths made bonfires and embarked on protest march through the streets of Ado-Ekiti. They went to the palace of the King to express their dismay over the murder of an illustrious son of the town. At the palace, angry youths and some members of the ruling PDP accused the present deputy governor of the state of masterminding the murder of Kehinde because of the Senatorial slot of the Ekiti Central district in which both he and Kehinde were said to be interested. The deputy governor promptly denied his involvement in the killing. The head of the Fasubaa family in a press conference also pointed accusing fingers at certain top officials of the ruling PDP.
The assassination of Kehinde is more worrisome because it is making Ekiti to increasingly become a haven for killers. It is as if the devil is let loose on Ekiti. In 2004, Taye Fasuba, late Kehinde's twin brother, narrowly escaped from assassins who invaded his house. Mrs. Jolaade Onipede, PDP women leader was lucky to escape from the bullets of assassins twice at a popular hotel in Ado Ekiti and at her home in 2007. Mr. Ropo Adesanya, former PDP Chairman was also lucky to escape from assassins bullets at a popular hotel in Ado Ekiti and was later attacked at the Governor's office. Few weeks ago, a High Chief of Ado-Ekiti was bathed with acid in his house and he is still recuperating in a hospital. But others were not so lucky. Tunde Omojola was murdered in broad daylight in Ifaki during a local government election in 2004, Dr. Ayo Daramola, a World Bank consultant who aspired to contest for the office of governor under PDP in 2007 was assassinated at his Ijan-Ekiti home in August 2006 .In 2007, during the local government primaries of the PDP, a chairmanship aspirant was killed in Aramoko-Ekiti and houses were burnt. During the recently controversial local government elections, one man was killed in Ijurin Ekiti while in Ilawe, two members of the PDP were knocked down and killed by vehicles belonging to the PDP which was the only party that contested in the election. The latest in the strings of politically related murder is that of Kehinde Fasubaa who had a Senatorial ambition against 2011.
Judging from the above catalogue of assassinations within the PDP, it is not out of place for the family of Fasubaa and any discerning observer to look in the direction of the PDP formation as the major suspect in the murder. But one wonders why somebody must be killed in 2009 for an election coming up in 2011? If it is true that Kehinde was killed because of a senatorial ambition, what gives the killer the confidence that he or she would survive even 2009? Why is the PDP living to its billing as, 'a nest of killers'? Why must all scores be settled not by dialogue but by assassination and other roughneck tactics? Why are political assassinations limited to the PDP not only in Ekiti but in Nigeria? Why has the police not been able to nab the killers of Chief Bola Ige, Harry Marshal, A. K. Dikkibo, three members of the PDP killed in Ogun State recently, Daramola, Omojola and now Fasubaa?
This brings us to the tardy manner in which the Ekiti Police Commissioner handled the murder of Kehinde. Mr. Chris Ola, the Commissioner has lost the confidence of Ekiti people. His ability to only nab the killers of Kehinde but to protect lives and property of Ekiti people is in doubt. He is alleged to be insensitive in the murder of Kehinde as he reportedly behaved as if killing a citizen he was paid to protect is a normal occurrence.
Many prominent citizens of the state and Fasubaa's family have called for the removal of the Commissioner to allow for proper investigation into the murder. The theory of armed robbery put forward by Mr. Ola is not only ridiculous but hasty, unprofessional and suspect. Armed robbers don't wait for their victims to die after shooting them. They also rob their victims of cash and other valuables but this was not the case with Kehinde who was singled out and shot severally.
Crime rate in the state has soared in recent times and is getting worse by the day. First, it was armed robbers who virtually took over in the state as they robbed not only banks but individuals. It was so bad that the governor's office was burgled. Many government cars have been snatched. Only last week, a female teacher in Ekiti was dispossessed of her vehicle by armed robbers right inside her school premises in broad daylight. Now it is assassins that are having a free reign.
Mr. Ola had not deemed it fit to visit the scene of the crime and the family days after the murder incident and when the family visited him in his office he snubbed them saying on television that he didn't invite them! This is the same man who went extra mile to flood Ekiti with mobile policemen to harass and intimidate members of the opposition during the controversial local government elections. When Mr. Ola said he had to import about six thousand policemen into Ekiti for the local government elections because his command has zero tolerance for violence, a friend joked that 'but his command has a hundred per cent tolerance for armed robbers'.
If he had tackled the issue of security of lives and property with the same zeal he handled the vexed local government elections, Kehinde would still be alive today. The question everybody is asking is who killed Kehinde Fasuba? The Inspector General of Police must take over the investigation immediately so that Ekiti would not recede from being a fountain of Knowledge to a haven for killers.
Jamiu is a media consultant and columnist.
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