Several unresolved political murders still litter the Nigerian landscape, highlighting the danger of the current reckless threats to life by politicians out to grab power by all means.
Dipo Dina, former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in Ogun State in the 2007 elections, was assassinated on January 25, 2010. ACN has now merged with other parties to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Before him, the litany of death had included some unknown politicians, and famous ones, such as Alfred Rewane, Aminasoari Dikibo, Funsho Williams, Bola Ige, and Marshall Harry.
Religion, law, do not matter
All major religions in the world frown at murder. Unless it is ordered by a court of law, killing, in whatever form, is also not permitted by most countries. But in Nigeria, though theoretically denounced, it seems a pastime.
Regularly, people are stabbed or gunned down in their homes or on the street with the murderers going scot free.
Across the country, people are constantly felled by assassins’ bullets and other weapons. For everyone killed, only the family members understand the depth of pain. They weep the loudest. Other mourners may weep in sympathy but not for as long as the bereaved.
Accompanying the weeping and agonising is the longing for justice. The bereaved are comforted by the hope that the perpetrators, hired assassins or robbers, would be caught and brought to justice speedily. But the wait can last a lifetime in this country.
Broken hearts still mourn
D.D. Direct, as Dina was fondly called, was hacked down on January 25, 2010 by assassins at Sango Ota, Ogun State on his way back to his Lagos home after attending a meeting in Abeokuta.
Five years on, the identity of the killers remains in obscurity. Five years after, the motive behind his death is still a mystery.
Family, friends, and sympathisers still mourn him. Most of them are beneficiaries of the philanthropy of Dina who, until death, was the breadwinner of the Dina dynasty.
Daniel denies involvement
Dina, on his way to his home on Dolphin Estate Ikoyi, Lagos, was abducted and taken in another car to an unknown destination where he was assassinated.
Accusing fingers were pointed at then Governor Gbenga Daniel, with whom he was locked in a legal battle over the result of election. But Daniel has consistently said that he has no hand in his death.
Then ACN (now APC) National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said whether it was assassination or robbery, the killing of Dina showed the level of insecurity in the country.
“Given the political battles he has fought between 2007 and 2010, it makes all politicians feel unsafe. And going by the record of such killings, the real killers are never known,” Mohammed lamented after the news broke in 2010.
A police source disclosed that Dina’s vehicle was driven away by the killers after the attack.
Methodist Church remembers
Members of the United African Methodist Church Organisation, where Dina was the treasurer till his death, have promised not to forget him and his family.
The organisation’s Lay President, Akinola Ogunlewe, said: “We cannot but continue to remember Dipo. He was such a humble and loving human being, generous to a fault, and a philanthropist par excellence.”
Williams
In 2006, Williams, former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant in Lagos State, was murdered in a similar manner, also at his Dolphin Estate residence.
The perpetrators act are yet to be identified.
Ige
Ige, former federal Attorney General, a member of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), was murdered in his home in Bodija, Ibadan on December 23, 2001.
This happened about a week after a mob lifted his cap when he visited his friend, the Ooni of Ife, Okunade Sijuwade, whom he installed during his governorship about a decade earlier.
Ige was humiliated while participating in the chieftaincy investiture of the wife of another friend, then President Olusegun Obasanjo.
A few days later, Odunayo Olagbaju, a political friend of then Osun State Deputy Governor, Iyiola Omisore, was hacked to death in Ile-Ife.
There were allegations that Olagbaju was responsible for the humiliation of Ige at Sijuwade’s palace.
When Omisore, who was the prime suspect in Ige’s murder, was impeached, he jumped ship from AD (Ige’s party) to the PDP (Obasanjo’s party).
Omisore was arrested on December 27, 2002 in Aso Rock following a trick invitation to meet dignitaries.
But while Omisore was in detention, he became a Senatorial candidate of the PDP in Ijesha/Ilesha Constituency and won the election.
To date, the killers of Ige have not been found. This partly contributed to the death of his wife, Atinuke, on April 10, 2003.
Harry
The murder of Harry in Abuja in 2003 added to the spate of political killings in the country from May 1999 when the civilian dispensation was ushered in.
His killers are yet to be arrested and brought to justice, like those of Rewane, Dikibo, Williams, Ige, Dina, and many others.