NOBEL laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to reopen the murder case of former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige.
Ige was shot dead in his home in Ibadan, Oyo State, on December 23, 2001 at the age of 71.
In a letter to the daughter of the late Ige, Mrs Funso Adegbola, at Bola Ige’s 20th commemoration, Soyinka said unsolved crimes only lead to a culture of impunity as he urged Buhari to “share the rewards of your investigations – if any.”
Soyinka was to deliver the message at the remembrance lecture, titled: “20th Year of Bola Ige Memorial Symposium, Two Decades of Injustice: What are the implications on Nigerian Democracy?” organised by the Bola Ige for Justice Centre in Lagos, on Tuesday, but was unable to attend physically, attributing his absence to an “11th-hour, sadly insurmountable impediment.”
In his message, Soyinka asked what had become of the president’s “robust pledge” to open an enquiry into the spate of political murders across the country.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, what has become of your robust pledge to open an enquiry into the spate of political murders that the nation has undergone in recent years? Does it all amount to yet another instance of political bravado?
“While we all accept that all lives should be valued equally, some impose a special responsibility on those in governance. Bola Ige, as the nation’s minister of justice, and United Nations’ civil servant-designate, was unarguably one such.
“A nation’s honour is in question and remains so until the hour of closure. Thus, she must never relent in demanding an explanation for his brutal murder, expose the perpetrators, identify the conspirators and reinstate the broken lines of justice.
“At the very least, we need a formal declaration regarding those who displayed an abnormal interest in the fates of those accused, to a level of proven, documented interference both in the investigative process, and within the judiciary. I am not alone in having written and lectured on these sordid aspects that fuelled the subversion of justice. There are surviving witnesses,” Soyinka said in his message.
