A Cold Case

By Idris Akinbajo
March 20, 2011 02:06AM 


Police spectacularly bungled the investigation into the brutal murder of Bola Ige, then the attorney general, from the very beginning, and have, to all appearances, given up trying to apprehend the killers.

In the days immediately following the murder, the assistant inspector general directly in charge of the investigation confessed to American authorities that the police had already made a mess of their work, and compounded initial errors with even graver ones. The result is that the investigation has hit a dead end, and the police appear to have given up the search.

After Mr. Ige was killed two days to Christmas in 2001, a special team of investigators was constituted to unravel his murder. It has now emerged that members of the team were grossly incompetent, a situation that ruined the investigation. The team, led by former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Abimbola Ojomo, committed atrocious errors which caused agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, who were called in to help with the investigations, to conclude that Mr. Ige’s murderers might never be found.

According to a United States diplomatic cable made available to NEXT, Howard Jeter, former US ambassador to Nigeria, in a January 18, 2002 dispatch to Washington, less than one month after the murder, said the visiting American investigators found their Nigerian counterparts as ‘under-trained and ill-equipped’ and came to the conclusion that the inquiry would not yield results.

“Absent a credible confession or outside assistance, the Nigerian investigation will fail to identify the assassin or his paymaster because of the lack of preserved evidence and the weak investigative skills of the police team,” Mr. Jeter stated while agreeing with the American operatives.

Sloppy investigation

According to Mr. Jeter, the American government got involved because “with political and public pressure inexorably mounting, the police desperately sought USG assistance in the investigation of the late minister’s murder”. The American team began its mission in Nigeria with a meeting with Mrs. Ojomo on January 10, 2002, about two weeks after the murder. At the meeting with the American officials, Mr. Jeter wrote, Mrs. Ojomo “summoned members of her handpicked investigative team to join in discussing the case with the USG visitors”.

To the chagrin of the visitors, the ballistics expert on Mrs. Ojomo’s team “confided that unspent shotgun shells left at the crime scene were not processed for latent fingerprints and were handled by at least six police officials before being placed in a paper envelope and marked as evidence”. ogbele o

“Similar examples of poor collection and preservation of crime scene evidence,” the ambassador said, “were evident, including the removal of the body, the movement of a suitcase that the assailant reportedly opened and searched, and the failure to take fingerprints of the attorney general to compare with unknown fingerprints found at the crime scene.” Mrs. Ojomo reportedly conceded that the investigation was sloppy.

Mr. Jeter said that during the meeting, the police AIG “candidly expressed disappointment in her team’s performance and noted that these deficiencies highlighted the need for advanced training for CID investigators — training that could be provided by the USG, particularly the FBI, in evidence collection and forensic analysis”.

The feeling of the American officials after meeting with Mrs. Ojomo and her team was one of disbelief as they “found a group of under-trained and ill-equipped investigators struggling with a complex criminal investigation.” Mr. Jeter stated in his cable to Washington that the actions of the investigators showed a complete lack of professionalism and competence in handling the investigations.

How US described the investigations

It was not only lower-rank investigators that were deficient in the basic skills of forensic analysis. Even Mrs. Ojomo was guilty of the same.

“These deficiencies were underscored by an offer from Mrs. Ojomo herself to open the envelope containing the gunmen’s unspent shells and give these to the FBI agents for examination in her office (which would have further contaminated the evidence).” The American ambassador, however, noted that the police wanted their investigation to yield a successful prosecution. He urged the US government to extend its assistance to the Nigerian police to aid it in its investigations.

The murder

Mr. Ige was killed on December 23, 2001 in his house in Ibadan, Oyo State. Following the death of Sani Abacha, former military dictator, and the decision of the Abdusalam Abubabakar-led military government to hand over to a democratically-elected leadership in 1999, Mr. Ige teamed up with other politicians to form the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Disagreements between members of the party led Mr. Ige and other political associates like Olu Falae, Abraham Adesanya, and Chukwuemeka Ezeife to form the Alliance for Democracy (AD) on the deadline date fixed for party registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Mr. Ige challenged Mr. Falae for the presidential ticket of the AD but lost out in a vote by elders of the party.

The governor of old Oyo State (1979-1983) then accepted to be a minister under former President Olusegun Obasanjo after the latter’s election on the PDP platform in 1999. After a stint in the Ministry for Power, the late politician was moved to the Justice Ministry by Mr. Obasanjo. He was murdered at a time when he was signalling to Mr. Obasanjo that he was quitting the PDP government to concentrate on the building of his party. Mrs. Ojomo gave the American officials the same story that the police had given Nigerians about Mr. Ige’s death.

“During the evening of December 23, Ige allowed all members of his police security team to take a dinner break, during which the assailants entered the Ige compound unchallenged,” Mrs. Ojomo told the US officials. “The assailants entered the home, found and forced household staff and Ige’s grown children and wife into a room, before killing Ige with a single shotgun blast at near point-blank range.” The police chief also told the American officials that “police investigators believe the assailants searched a suitcase and some bedroom furniture before fleeing”.

‘Ige was not killed by drug barons’

While there were rumours at the time that drug barons could have killed Mr. Ige as he had, as attorney-general, opposed the bail of some drug traffickers, Mrs. Ojomo dismissed that possibility.

“Possible drug- or organized crime-related motives for the murder have been investigated and rejected, claimed the AIG,” Mr. Jeter stated.

“She disclosed that she had specifically investigated the possibility that two Nigerian drug traffickers arrested in August (2001) with 60 kilograms of cocaine — against whose bail the AG personally fought in court — could have had a hand in the murder, but came up blank.” Mrs. Ojomo confided in the American authorities that Mr. Ige’s murder may have been politically motivated.

“Ojomo revealed that ongoing interviews of potential suspects have focused attention on one political associate of Ige’s whose story is inconsistent. This is their most promising suspect, she claimed.” She also called on the US government to provide all possible assistance to the investigators, particularly with the provision of a polygraph machine to aid in the interrogation of the suspects.

No comment from police

Police spokesperson, Yemi Ajayi, declined to respond to our enquiry on the observations of the American team and the confession by Mrs. Ojomo and her team members. He also would not discuss the status of the nine-year-old investigation. Mr. Ajayi said he would only react after seeing the US cable.

“I cannot say anything now until we see the document,” he said.

The police had previously stated that the investigation was ongoing.


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5684203-146/story.csp

I still miss Uncle Bola Ige, The Cicero of Esa Oke 

Could OBJ have been involved, like it was insinuated by Soyinka and the AD people?


I dont want to believe that


And I doubt Omisore did that? Cant vouch for Omisore, but I dont want to believe he did it

^^Do you think the Americans did it?

dunno, I just wish his family and the rest of us can get some justice, Bola Ige did not deserve to die like that.

see

Kilode?!:

^^Do you think the Americans did it?

Are you serious?



They need Bola Ige, more than we need him!

^^ I don't know, just asking, he was Justice minister, and kinda feisty and brave, depends on who you speak with. We all seem to have more questions than answers, I was just wondering "aloud"

I think his killers might be connected to the politics of that period and his reported decision to retire, dunno really

"It has now emerged that members of the team were grossly incompetent, a situation that ruined the investigation. The team, led by former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Abimbola Ojomo, committed atrocious errors which caused agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, who were called in to help with the investigations, to conclude that Mr. Ige’s murderers might never be found."

"American investigators found their Nigerian counterparts as ‘under-trained and ill-equipped’ and came to the conclusion that the inquiry would not yield results."



What do you expect from the "wetin you carry" lot. Incompetence is an understatement, the Nigerian police is more like a criminal organization.

This is very unfortunate!

Even, Mrs Ojomo that was supposed to be a respected police officer did not know better. What a shame!


There is fire on the mountain. I am beginning to suspect OBJ seriously. They prolly planted the whole drug baron connection just to divert attention from the real killers.

God, aye ma nika oooooo


Would love to see what they have on Funso Williams!


God bless Wikileak!

fstranger3:

This is very unfortunate!
I am beginning to suspect OBJ seriously.

+1. OBJ indirectly through his cronies is my guess.

fstranger3:

This is very unfortunate!

Even, Mrs Ojomo that was supposed to be a respected police officer did not know better. What a shame!


There is fire on the mountain. I am beginning to suspect OBJ seriously. They prolly planted the whole drug baron connection just to divert attention from the real killers.

God, aye ma nika oooooo


Would love to see what they have on Funso Williams!


God bless Wikileak!

There was no drug baron. Somebody or some people wanted him out of OBJ's government.

Aigbofa:

There was no drug baron. Somebody or some people wanted him out of OBJ's government.

If I remember correctly, Tell magazine actually believed  and reported extensively on the drug baron and NEPA connections.

It was alleged that there were powerful forces from the North who were bent on seeing him fail in the power ministry and the Bola Ige asked to be transfered out of Power because he felt powerless against these people, most of whom were northerners. And that he may have offended these northern elements who prolly waited for the right time, and hired Sgt. Rogers-type of people to kill him. Tell made it sound as if the killers involved were highly trained people who did the job perfectly.

I am beginning to think that the cops were complicit in his murder and there is no way OBJ did not know about it. The whole AG of the federation?

Although very few people believed the drug connection, of all the possible scenarios, it was the most plausible.

So we may never know who killed Chief Ajibola James Ige.  Hmmmm. . .  SMH

eku_bear:

+1. OBJ indirectly through his cronies is my guess.

It is just very difficult to believe because they were very close!

^^I never believed that Drug baron nonsense, and OBJ and Uncle Bola Ige were not close IMO, Ige was an Awoist, OBJ an usurper and a betrayer, I doubt Bola Ige trusted that man at all . . .

Kilode?!:

^^I never believed that Drug baron nonsense, and OBJ and Uncle Bola Ige were not close IMO, Ige was an Awoist, OBJ an usurper and a betrayer, I doubt Bola Ige trusted that man at all . . .

Did you see the letter he claimed to have written to OBJ and the whole OBJ calling Soyinka a liar shyyte?


It was a lil revealing about their level of friendship!


I will search for it and see if I can get hold of it

fstranger3:

If I remember correctly, Tell magazine actually believed  and reported extensively on the drug baron and NEPA connections.

It was alleged that there were powerful forces from the North who were bent on seeing him fail in the power ministry and the Bola Ige asked to be transfered out of Power because he felt powerless against these people, most of whom were northerners. And that he may have offended these northern elements who prolly waited for the right time, and hired Sgt. Rogers-type of people to kill him. Tell made it sound as if the killers involved were highly trained people who did the job perfectly.

[b]I am beginning to think that the cops were complicit in his murder and there is no way OBJ did not know about it. The whole AG of the federation?[/b]Although very few people believed the drug connection, of all the possible scenarios, it was the most plausible.

So we may never know who killed Chief Ajibola James Ige.  Hmmmm. . .  SMH

His security detail was conveniently absent just before the murder! The Girl guides could have done a better job of protecting him.

Aigbofa:

His security detail was conveniently absent just before the murder! The Girls guide could have done a better job of protecting him.

This is really unfortunate!
The single most powerful politician killed just like that and nine years later we still do not know who killed him.


There will never be another Ige. I remember when he was being confirmed as Minister of power, and on getting to the floor of the Senate, instead of being interviewed, the Senators stood up to applaud him, and he ended up lecturing them on cant remember what.

Highly respected by all and sundry. And he was killed just like that?

Hmmm. . .

^^^^

Omo Iya, very unfortunate.

I missed him deeply, his writings, his wisdom, his analysis, his brilliant grasp of history and his oratory, he taught me the correct spelling of A Luta Continua and I never even met him.

He's wasn't perfect and some people don't like him, but I was deeply saddened by his death.

I read his book The Kaduna Boy as a pimple faced teenager and my academic life changed. . .

He was becoming too powerful for OBJ's liking and they had to take him out, couple with his unwillingness to allow AD merge with PDP,

which OBJ sees as a threat to his second term bid and fear of being accused of rejection by his people.

I could remember vividly, AD died immediately when they killed him.

BTW, any news about Baba fryor?? I have this felling that Ominsore and Obj are complicit to that horroble crime.

ds is kind of govt structures u get when u allow incompetent and mediocres to handle positions of responsibility because of "temperin justice wt mercy" or quota syatem or other silly excuses

Kilode?!:

^^^^

Omo Iya, very unfortunate.

I missed him deeply, his writings, his wisdom, his analysis, his brilliant grasp of history and his oratory, he taught me the correct spelling of A Luta Continua and I never even met him.

He's wasn't perfect and some people don't like him, but I was deeply saddened by his death.

I read his book The Kaduna Boy as a pimple faced teenager and my academic life changed. . .

Same here


I never met him, but I always aspire to be like him, especially his private life


People have only good things to say about him. Very humble. I do believe though that if he was alive, OGD and other states that fell to the PDP would have remained AD. Osun especially would have remained in the AD column. Even up till now, there  is no one smart enough, knowledgeable enough, and articulate enough to influence people in the SW like he did.


He was more than the Cicero of Esa-Oke, he was mini-god to a lot of us. We don suffer oooooooo.

Soyinka isnt doing much, It seems like he just doesnt care what happens to the SW. Bola Ige would never have allowed Tinubu to be running haywire like he is doing now. He would have called his arze to order. Who was Tinubu when Ige was around


O ma seoooooooo

There are strange developments between India and Nigeria especially as it concerns Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), Hindu Nationalist and Bola Ige(1930-2001),
Yoruba Nationalist.

Gandhi and Ige both studied Law at the University College London.

Gandhi and ige were both imprisoned for their struggles on the Democratic front.

Gandhi and Ige have both been described as having caustic tongues.

Gandhi was a mystic and relatedly Bola Ige a Rosicrucian.

Gandhi and Ige were both assasinated in their 70s. Gandhi in New Delhi the political capital of India and Bola Ige in Ibadan the Political Capital of the Yoruba Nation.

Gandhi had as his right hand man, Pandit Nehru. Twenty years younger than Gandhi, Nehru studied Geology,physics,Chemistry and Botany and eventually Law.

Comparably Ige had as his special asssitant,Olu Agunloye,18 years younger than Ige he studied Geo Physics.

Bola Ige is particularly interesting for the passion he has shown for India, Gandhi and Nehru, In his Autobiography, Kaduna Boy, he revealed that the first country he visited outside Nigeria was India.He also disclosed that he had read virtually everything Gandhi and Nehru ever wrote.

Ige also informed that when Nehru became Prime minister in 1947, He "was as happy as if he was an Indian"and when Gandhi was assasinated in 1948 he had "Three days of excruciating mental agony and moodiness"

India is the Worlds largest Democracy and Nigeria the largest Democracy in Africa.India and Nigeria both have Histories of Slavery,Colonialism by the British, and ethno-religious conflicts. Gandhi ,father of indian independence was born October 2 1869 and Nigerian day of Independence is October 1.

In colonial Nigeria it is said the Students had a protest song that read in part " After India comes Nigeria


http://www.naijanewsandevents.com/opinion/4302-of-mahatma-gandhi-and-bola-ige.html

@warrior

His death killed AD and the Southwest progressive movement that was fast rising after the death of Abacha, especially coming on the heels on their successful opposition as NADECO(National Democratic Coalition)

I remember him telling Nigerians that Abachas newly formed parties were "five fingers of the same leprous hands"

I think he just had to support OBJ to forge a united front at that time, I think he miscalculated

Bola Ige popularized the phrase "Siddon look"

Tinubu cannot hold a candle to Bola Ige

Bola Ige and Pa Adesanya will appear on TVs all over SW States on the Eve of an Election and the masses will troop out to vote the people they support on election day .

Who be Tibubu ?

Who be OBJ?

He would've sent Bode George back to his Agbole in Lagos,

Talkless of minions and common thugs like OGD, Akala or Oyinlola, who born dem papa? Mtcheew!  

Ai si nile Ologbo. . .

when Gandhi was assasinated in 1948 he had "Three days of excruciating mental agony and moodiness"

That was how I felt when I heard they murdered him. . .

^^ I Agree. Mine too.

These killers would be  unveilled soonest in the name of lord.
killers would not go unpunished.

Someday the truth will come out.

^hopefully,

Ki Ile to Pa Osika Ohun Rere ti baje. . . ~hopefully the wicked will face Justice, won't bring back a great man though~

Could OBJ have been involved, like it was insinuated by Soyinka and the AD people?


I dont want to believe that


And I doubt Omisore did that? Cant vouch for Omisore, but I dont want to believe he did it

@fstranger3,
is possible you know more we do as it concerns the killing of a whole attorney general of the federation.
be informed that nigerian police is capable of of finding the killers of an ordinary recruite on police if they want talkless of an attorney general.
if you believe that he was killed, u must believe that he was killed by somebody very influential at the federal level. this person must be influential enough to change the directions of the investigation.
if you are not involved, i have no other name related to this killing rather than the then president.
this kind of killing is called state killing and in this kind of situation, no investigation will work out.

This has OBJ's hands all over it. I remember telling someone the day after Ige was killed that his killers would never be found cos it was Murder at a high level

^^^


What about this:


http://www.dawodu.com/aluko65.htm