A frontline legal luminary, Chief Adeniyi Akintola SAN has said refusal of the government to unravel the gruesome killing of Chief Bola Ige and other Nigerians will forever leave a dent in the history of the country
The All Progressives Congress APC Guber hopeful said this in a paper presented at 20th Year Bola Ige memorial Syposium in Lagos
Speaking on the Topic: 2 decades of Injustice what are the implications on Nigeria Democracy, Akintola said
Any right thinking government would deploy machineries to untravel the mysterious killing/assassination of Chief Bola Ige and that of other citizens, whose lives were gruesomely taken.
“Up till date, I still find it difficult to believe that Chief Bola Ige could be dealt with in such a manner the system and the country he fought hard to liberate from the shackles of the military dictatorship.
“Whenever I drive past his office which about 3blocks away from mine in Ibadan series of unanswered questions flood my mind. While was he killed? Who killed him? Why is it difficult to find his killers? Why is it difficult to bring his killers to book?
How did our state of security degenerate to this level ? What is the faith of the common man in this country ? Why has been difficult for the past and present civilian/ democratic governments to deploy resources to find Bola Ige Killers 20yrs after?
“These and many more questions trouble my mind and leave me in a perpetual state of confusion. His assassination in his home at Bodija, Ibadan was definitely the climax of assassinations in Nigeria and Africa as a whole and the foundation for various security challenges that we as a nation have been confronting since then and till this day.
On the implications on Nigeria’s Democracy, Akintola maintained that
there is always the recurring lack of political will to hold the perpetrators of these heinous crimes accountable despite our claim of being a democratic country.
“Nigeria has continued to, at an alarming rate too suffer human rights violations resulting from security challenges, youth, unemployment, poverty and decaying judicial system.
“These violations include kidnapping, assassination, extra-judicial killings, injustice, rape, violence, inequalities, inhuman and the degrading treatment, discrimination and above all impunity weak institutions and the lack of political will to hold perpetrator accountable .Most of the problems associated with successfully practicing a constitutional democracy in Nigeria bother on the unfortunate deviancy from practicing the rule of law which basically state that no one is above the law. Insecurity is unarguably the greatest threat to Nigeria nascent democracy.
While harping on the need to entrench the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms to curtail the current challenges bedeviling the country, Akintola concluded that “injustice to Bola Ige is injustice to all. We must all undertake to speak in one unified voice of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and justice for all.
A former minister, Chief Olu Agunloye in his adress maintained that the injustice of untimely and gruesome death was not to Bola Ige alone but to all of us.
He said it was a conspiracy by all the identified forces who timed, cleared the way, called his security off duty, blocked the culprits from being prosecuted etc that will answer the incorruptible witness/judge who saw everything. So if the powers of the earth have refused to budge the heavenly power will settle the score.
Also, the erstwhile Chief Judge of Oyo State Hon Justice Badejoko Adeniji berated the system for it’s inability to provide security.
She said she was almost not going to come to the event but for the insistence of Awa Bamiji the head of the Bola Ige Centre for Democracy and Youth Empowerment who insisted that she must come to shame the murderers of Bola Ige.
She spoke glowingly about Chief Bola Ige right from her encounter with the Chief from her University days in Ife( She was an intern at Chief Iges Law Chambers in Ibadan) She ended by leaving a curse on Iges murderers that “they shall not know peace”. Emeritus Prof. of political science Peter Adeniran, representative of Sanwo-Olu the gov. Of Lagos and other dignitaries responded to the two papers presented.
