BOLA IGE, MURDERED BY STATE THUGS OR IYIOLA OMISORE?… THE 12 YEAR MYSTERY
On December 23, 2001 Nigerians were left in agony, as henchmen believed to be acting on instructions from Abuja or Osogbo murdered, James Ajibola Ige, born September 13, 1930, who was then Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Federation.
Twelve years after that sad incident, intrigues surrounding his death remains a mystery, but he still lives on in the heart of many Nigerians as one of the greatest Nigerians that ever lived.
The former Governor of Old Oyo State and close ally and political son of another great Nigerian, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was in his Ondo Street, Ibadan residence when the agents of death came calling that infamous day, three days to Christmas.
Cicero of Esa Oke as he was fondly called died at about 9.00 pm when the unknown gunmen pumped a single bullet to his heart. He had returned from Lagos at about 8.30pm, and he had just asked his security details to go and have their dinner as he retired upstairs.
A week earlier, the late Ige narrowly escaped being mobbed at Ile-Ife by an irate crowd that removed his cap and smashed his pair of medicated glasses. The incident happened within the premises of the palace of the Ooni of Ife Oba Okunade Sijuwade shortly after the conferment of the chieftaincy title of Yeye Oranmiyan of Ile-Ife on the wife of then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Stella.
This act was believed to have been carried out by goons loyal to the Iyiola Omisore, the then Deputy Governor of Osun State, who was engaging his boss , the then governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, a political protege of Ige in a political feud.
The Ife incident led credence to speculations that he was murdered on instructions of Omisore, as cap removal in Yoruba culture, could be literally equated to signing ones death warrant.
Omisore was later arrested for his murder, detained at the Agodi Prisons, Ibadan from where he won elections to become a Senator of the Federal Republic. Senator Omisore was later absolved of any wrongdoings by the court. But the court of public opinion in some quarters still hold him culpable.
Another conspiracy theory that was rife back then was that he was murdered on the instructions of Abuja, it was rumored that he was on the verge of exposing some high and mighty who were involved in shady dealings.
Whatever the case, twelve years after his death, the mystery as to the orchestrators of that dastardly act remains unsolved, but Ige remains a true Nigerian whose name has been etched in the sands of time.