Osun Poll: Bola Ige’s voice resounds from beyond the grave –Soyinka mocks APC

Ilesanmi AdekanbiJuly 18, 2022

3 minutes read

Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has mocked the All Progressives Congress (APC) after the ruling party lost the Osun governorship election poll.

The Nobel Laureate said the voice of Bola Ige, slain Minister of Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) resounded from beyond the grave to disgrace those APC leaders who allegedly conspired to catapult his destroyers to unmerited national prominence.

Newsflash Nigeria had earlier reported the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke, had been declared the winner of the Osun State governorship poll by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Adeleke polled 403,371 votes to defeat incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola and the candidate of the APC, who secured 375,027 votes.

The PDP candidate won in 17 local government areas including Olorunda, Ede South, Orolu, Osogbo, Odo Otin, Ifelodun, Atakumosa, and Ila, the hometown where the pioneer National Chairman of the ruling APC, Bisi Akande is from.

Governor Oyetola won in 13 local government areas including Iwo, Ayedaade, Ife South and Ife East.

In April 2022, Soyinka faulted the election of Iyiola Omisore as the National Secretary of the ruling APC.

He described Omisore as “one of the prime suspects” in the murder of Bola Ige, a former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).

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Soyinka said President Muhammadu Buhari’s acceptance of Omisore as APC National Secretary raises questions about his pledge to reopen the probe.

“With the emergence of the said prime suspect as National Secretary of the Ruling Party, is the Inspector-General of Police equipped to confront political obstacles in a resumption of investigation? Is there any guarantee that the result will see the light of day? How suspect, ab initio, will be the conclusions, given the present political ordering?

“That the prime suspect was privileged in a number of improper ways went beyond mere allegation. Political interventions, including pressure on the judiciary during bail hearings, cannot be denied. A judge under such pressure kept a diary with accusations, page of which he consigned to friends for safe keeping,” Soyinka had said.

Prior to the assassination, Ige and Omisore had been at loggerheads over a political crisis in Osun.

Ige died on December 23, 2001, following his assassination by yet-to-be-identified killers in his residence in Ibadan, Oyo State. The gruesome murder also led to the sudden death of Atinuke, his wife; and destabilised his family.

Ige’s assassination was believed to have started with an altercation that happened at the palace of the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade Okunade during the conferment of chieftaincy title on some individuals. Ige was mobbed by an angry crowd as they stripped him of his necklace and cap, and destroyed his glasses.

The group was led by a certain ‘Fryo’, a known political thug loyal and devoted to Omisore. It was an obvious breach of his security and generally believed to be an attempt to eliminate him openly. A day after the assault, Omisore reportedly granted an interview to Tempo magazine that was published the following week.

In the interview, he said “…Bola Ige came on (the) radio here to insult me and my family. That is his last one. He was beaten yesterday; the people of Ife beat him up and he was crying like a baby as they removed his cap and his glasses.”

A week after the attack on Bola Ige at Ooni’s palace, he was killed in his home in Ibadan. In December 2002, the APC National Secretary was impeached as the deputy governor of Osun over a breach of oath of office and other offences.

After his impeachment, Omisore alongside others were arrested and arraigned before an Oyo State High Court as the suspected killers of the former Attorney General of the Federation but were later released for lack of evidence. He has repeatedly denied having any involvement in Ige’s death.

In a statement released a few hours after the announcement of the result of the 2022 Osun governorship election, in which Omisore played a futile role to ensure Oyetola would return for a second term, the Nobel Laureate said Ige’s voice has resounded from beyond the grave to disgrace those who allegedly conspired to catapult his destroyers to unmerited national prominence.

“The voice of Ajibola Ige, slain Minister of Justice, resounds from beyond the grave. Those who conspired to catapult his destroyers to unmerited national prominence, to insult the memories of the living, and jettison basic ethical constraints, have been justly served. It is a lesson that speaks to other zones of rightful public expectations, equity, and just entitlements,” he said.

“One despairs but continues to hope that there are still receptive minds in which such lessons will germinate.

“If we may adapt a wise saying from the ancients: the beast of burden, nicknamed Equity, ambles its mined course to destination but, sooner or later, that donkey arrives.”