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Nigerian Official: Assassination of Bola Ige A Threat To Nigeria's Democracy
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Bola Ige - assassinated on
Christmas eve |
By
IOL Correspondent in Nigeria, Sulaiman Osho
ABEOKUTA,
NIGERIA, Jan 6 (IslamOnline) -Nigeria's former Minister of Justice and
Attorney-General, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibrahim has described the assassination of
the Chief Law Officer of the federation, Chief Bola Ige on the eve of the last
Christmas at his home in Ibadan, Nigeria by unknown persons as a threat to the
emerging democracy in Africa's largest country.
In
an interview, Ibrahim said "the slaying of the Attorney-General and
Minister of Justice of the country is the confirmation of the fears about the
state of insecurity of lives and property in Nigeria".
The
first Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) from northern Nigeria added that the act
was bound to affect the decision of foreign investors wishing to establish
businesses in the country.
Condemning
the dastardly act as "inhuman, barbaric and undemocratic", he stated
that there was no justification for the killers to fell the Cicero of Nigeria at
his prime, especially when he was making frantic efforts to ensure a true
independent judiciary for Nigeria.
The
former Attorney-General who was called to the Bar in 1964 declared that the
assassination of Chief Bola Ige (SAN), a political bigwig, was a great set-back
for the realization of an independent judiciary in Africa's largest democracy.
He
stated that there was nothing wrong in Chief Bola Ige, an Alliance for Democracy
(AD) leader participation in the government of People's Democratic Party (PDP)
as a Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, noting that politics was meant to
service the interest of the nation and not the ideas of a group of people.
Ibrahim
advised Nigerian politicians that they should not consider political opposition
with a negative attitude, but to consider their different views and to assess
how that may benefit the general public.
He
declared that Chief Bola Ige may have been regarded as controversial in some
quarters, but his achievements in the review of laws in Nigeria from 1999 till
his death could not have been achieved outside government.
The
former law maker however called for a change of attitude among Nigerians towards
hoodlums, to ensure the success of the government's security efforts, explaining
that people should stop tolerating hoodlums around them and by reporting such to
the security men.
He
charged the government to accord security utmost priority in its programs
especially through recruitment, equipment and facilities, prompt payment of
salaries and other welfare package for them.
Chief
Bola Ige was assassinated at his home at Bodija housing estate, Ibadan Nigeria
at about 9.00 p.m. on December 23, after arriving from Lagos from visiting his
brother at Oluyoro hospital, Ibadan Nigeria's Minister of Information and
Orientation.
Ige
gave his security men the chance to go and eat when the assassins who perhaps
had been trailing him entered the house and shot him at his bedroom.
His
wife, Justice Atinuke Ige and grand-children were locked in a room when the
killing took place. He couldn't make it to the hospital and died on the way. The
Nigerian government will soon announce the formation of a committee that will be
responsible for organizing a befitting burial for the late Attorney-General and
Minister of Justice.
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