The Verdict according to Olusegun Adeniyi.
There used to be a popular car sticker with the inscription, “Insured
by the mafia. You hit me, we hit you!”, which seems to have vanished
from our streets. The message therein is simple: It is based on a notion
of equating vengeance with justice and the absence of proportion
between offence and punishment. Unfortunately, that is the situation in
our country today as more and more Nigerians boycott the court in favour
of judicial black market where “justice” is swift and without mercy. It
is then little wonder that almost every day comes with stories of
killings, most of them based on revenge for real or perceived injury.
If we will also be honest, our justice administration system has
reached a point where it is almost impossible to secure conviction even
for crime suspects caught in the act and for that reason, many Nigerians
would rather take the laws into their own hands. Today, there are too
numerous homicide cases that remain unresolved, and given our collective
amnesia as a nation, the criminals in our midst also know this so they
continue to ply their trade, almost certain they would get away with it.
Following the recent campus killings in Port Harcourt and Mubi, there
has been a public outrage by several Nigerians. But very soon we will
move on, as we always do, and the cases will be forgotten while the
suspects will be freed either as a result of pressure from some big men
or for want of diligent prosecution. There are too many cases I can cite
to highlight that unfortunate scenario but I recall how I felt on July
10, 1999 when the news broke that some cultists entered Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife campus and brutally hacked to death some promising
students. Who remembers them again?
A new book, titled “Water Must Flow Uphill (Adventures in University
Administration)” by Prof. Roger Makanjuola, has captured the incident we
all seem to have forgotten in a way that will draw tears to many eyes.
Appointed V.C. in the wake of the tragedy to replace Prof Wale Omole
(current Chairman of the Guardian Editorial Board), Makanjuola’s book is
highly revealing of what happens on our campuses, and the things most
Professors do (including the use of juju), in their bid to become vice
chancellor! The bit that is, however, of interest to this discourse is
the narrative of what led to the July 10, 1999 tragedy at Ife and what
followed afterwards. From the excerpts, we can draw our own conclusions
as to why Nigeria is fast becoming a killing field:
On Saturday, 7 March 1999, a group of Black Axe members held a meeting
in Ife town. After the meeting, they drove back to the campus. On the
main road, Road 1, leading into the campus, they were overtaken by some
students in another car. For whatever reason, they were enraged and gave
chase to the students. The students, seeing them in pursuit, raced
hastily to the car park outside Angola Hall and ran into the adjacent
Awolowo Hall for safety. The Students’ Union, which had also received
information that secret cult members were gathering in a house in the
senior staff quarters, mobilised in response to the incident. Led by
George Iwilade, the Secretary-General, a group of them drove to the
house, officially occupied by Mr. F.M. Mekoma, and forced their way into
the boys’ quarters. They found nine individuals inside, eight of them
students of the University, with a submachine gun, a locally
manufactured gun, an axe, a bayonet and the black clothing and regalia
of the Black Axe cult. The University authorities were informed, and the
members of the secret cult were handed over to the Police. They were
held in police custody and taken to the Chief Magistrate’s Court where
two weeks later they were granted bail.
The case was heard on 31 March, and to the utmost amazement of
everyone, the Chief Magistrate discharged and acquitted the arrested
individuals. The students who had apprehended the cult members were not
called as witnesses. The investigating police officer, Corporal Femi
Adewoye, claimed that the witnesses could not be located and actually
stated in Court, “I tried to contact the complainants in this case, all
to no avail. To date, there is no complainant in the case. Since all the
accused persons denied the allegations against them and there is no
complainant, there is no way the allegations can be proved.” This was
the submission of the prosecuting police officer! Usually, in such
cases, witness’ summons were served through the University
Administration but this did not happen. The trial was concluded in two
court appearances in eight days.
The Chief Magistrate also ordered that the submachine gun be sent to
the police armourer and the other exhibits be destroyed, thus
eliminating all the evidence, and making it impossible to re-open the
case. The Judicial Enquiry recommended that the Magistrate be reported
to the Judicial Commission for appropriate disciplinary action. Nothing
came of this, as nothing came of all the other recommendations of that
Panel.
After the arrests of the cult members, the University, under pressure
from the students, issued a release suspending them without serving them
with letters of suspension. Shortly afterwards, the University was
closed as a result of a student crisis. When it re-opened three months
later, the cult members returned to the campus and were seen attending
lectures. The students raised an alarm once more. In response to this,
the University issued a release on 2 July re-affirming the suspensions
of the cult members. The letters of suspension were dated 8 July and it
is doubtful whether those affected actually received them before the
tragic events two days later. Even then, one of the students, Bruno
Arinze, was left out. I eventually suspended him on 23 July.
The cult involved in the episode of 7 March was the Black Axe. Four
major reasons have been advanced as to the genesis leading to the mayhem
on 10 July. One, to which I subscribe, was that the Black Axe was
avenging the humiliating treatment of its members by the Student Union
leaders in March 1999.
On the night of 9 July 1999, the Kegites, members of the Palm Wine
Drinkers’ Club, held a “gyration” (party) in the cafeteria of Awolowo
Hall. The party was in full swing, when, at around 3.30am (now 10 July),
a group of masked individuals, wearing black clothing, drove through
the main gate and proceeded to the car park next to the Tennis Courts in
the Sports Centre. They disembarked there and went on foot along a bush
path to Awolowo Hall, where they violently interrupted the gyration,
firing guns and also wielding axes and cutlasses. The group was probably
all young men, although there is a persistent story of at least one
woman among them. Some of the partygoers were shot, though none of them
was killed. The partygoers ran for their lives, a few actually throwing
themselves through glass doors.
A group of the gunmen chased the partygoers as far as Mozambique Hall.
Other groups proceeded to the rooms. They first entered Room 184, where
they shot and killed Efe Ekede, a Part II Psychology student. In Room
230, they shot Charles Ita, a Part II Law student. A group of the
attackers then shot Yemi Ajiteru, a Part II Religious Studies student,
through the head in the corridor outside the Kegites’ headquarters. In
Room 273, they found George Iwilade (Afrika), the Secretary-General of
the Students’ Union and a Law student, and shot him through the head,
along with another occupant, Tunde Oke, a Part 1 student of Philosophy,
who was shot in the abdomen. When the attackers got to Room 271, the
room allocated to the suspended Students’ Union President, Lanre Adeleke
(Legacy), they found that he had escaped. Legacy was in his room when
he heard the first gun shots. He hurriedly went to his door, looked out,
and saw two of the attackers on the next floor, firing shots. He ran
back into his room and broke through the partition of the kitchenette
into the next room’s kitchenette. He heard them shouting, “Legacy, come
out!” and escaped into the next room. During the course of the incident,
the attackers also shouted the names of “Afrika”, George Iwilade, and
“Dexter”, the Chief of the Kegites, demanding that they come out.
The band of thugs proceeded to Fajuyi Hall on foot, where they shot and
killed one more student. That individual, Eviano Ekelemo, a medical
student, was certainly not a student activist, but they shot him anyway.
The murderers left Fajuyi Hall on foot and went through the bush path
behind the Hall back to their vehicles. They drove to the Students’
Union building, which they ransacked. They returned to their vehicles
and drove out of the University through the main gate. The security
staff, having heard gunfire, fled for their lives. Thus the exit of the
marauding thugs was unchallenged.
The students with gunshot wounds were taken to the Health Centre and
from there to the Teaching Hospital. Tunde Oke was still alive but died
on the operating table. Four others, George Iwilade, Yemi Ajiteru, Efe
Ekede and Eviano Ekelemu, were brought in dead. Eviano Ekelemu bled to
death from gunshot wounds to the groin and thigh. The other three died
from gunshot wounds to the head. In each case, the weapons used were
shotguns, fired at close range. Charles Ita and five others who were
shot in the Awolowo Hall cafeteria, survived. Twenty-five others
received minor injuries, which were sustained during the stampede out of
the Awolowo Hall cafeteria and later on during the attack.
In the aftermath of the attack, the whole university was enveloped in
fear and there was chaos in the halls of residence. However, within a
short time, the President of the Students’ Union, Lanre Adeleke, was
able to restore order and mobilise his colleagues. The students went to
the town searching for the perpetrators in locations where cult members
were thought to be living. They “arrested” three individuals and brought
them back to Awolowo Hall. These were Aisekhaghe Aikhile, a Part I
student of Agricultural Economics, Emeka Ojuagu, and Frank Idahosa
(Efosa). Efosa and Ojuagu were arrested in a public transport vehicle
that was about to leave Ife.
The students exhibited black clothing, two berets and two T-shirts,
that had been found in Ojuagu’s bag, which was claimed to be the Black
Axe uniform. Efosa was a known member of the Black Axe. He had been
expelled from the University of Benin and was later admitted for a
diploma programme in Local Government Studies in Ife. The three of them
were savagely beaten and tortured in the Awolowo Hall “Coffee Room”, the
traditional venue for such events. The inverted commas have been
employed because coffee had not been known to be served there for many
years. Efosa and Oguagu are said to have confessed to participating in
the attacks during their “interrogation”, and Efosa is said to have gone
further to state that the attack was organised to avenge the
humiliating treatment of the Black Axe members who had been arrested in
Mr. Mekoma’s house on 7 March.
In the course of the interrogation, Aisekhaghe Aikhile died, and his
body was taken to the hospital mortuary. The interrogations also yielded
the information that 22 Black Axe members were involved, six from the
University, four from the University of Lagos, four from the University
of Ibadan, and eight from the University of Calabar. There was also a
separate claim that more students from the University of Benin were also
involved.
The VC, Professor Wale Omole, had been out of the country on 10 July
1999, the day of the attack and in his absence, the Deputy VC
(Academic), Professor A.E. Akingbohungbe, was in charge. Soon after his
arrival, the VC was summoned to Abuja to give a report of the incident
the day after he returned to campus. On 14 July, his suspension was
announced by the Government. It was against this background that I was
tracked to the UK and summoned to return immediately and assume duty as
the acting VC of the University.
When I arrived on the campus on 18 July, I promised the students and
the rest of the university community, that the university would do
everything in its power to bring the perpetrators to justice. I took
this undertaking extremely seriously.
The first step was to visit the Commissioner of Police, Mr. J.C. Nwoye,
in Osogbo. I raised the issue of the nine individuals who had been
arrested in March and discharged by the Chief Magistrate. He promised
that a vigorous and thorough investigation was in progress on the
matter. He then expressed concern that the University authorities had
not officially reported the murders to the Police despite repeated
requests. On my return to the University, I wrote the required letter,
once more indicating our strong fears concerning a connection between
the March episode and the murders, and requesting that the nine
individuals involved be re-arrested.
A total of 12 individuals were arrested and charged to court over the
three weeks following the murders, including Efosa and Ojuagu. Only one
of those involved in the March episode was among those arrested. The
other eight could not be located. Two of them had obtained their
transcripts and resumed their studies in France. The students brought
information on the whereabouts of a major suspect, Babatunde Kazeem
(Kato), and we provided a vehicle so that the Police could go with the
students to the address in Lagos and arrest him. Kato was a former
student who had been “advised to withdraw” from the University as a
result of academic failure. He had been apprehended by the Students’
Union in August 1997 when he admitted to being a secret cult member. He
was subsequently handed over to the Security Department, but there is no
record of what happened after that. We also provided the Police with
information on three other individuals, “Innocent”, “Yuletide” and
“Ogbume.” Sadly, nothing came of this, even though we provided Ogbume’s
address in Victoria Garden City, Lagos. The arrested persons were
charged to the Ile-Ife Magistrate’s court for the murders.
The Judicial Commission of Enquiry was eventually inaugurated in Abuja
on 18 October, but did not start work until 24 November, and eventually
arrived in the University on Sunday, 28 November. The Chairman was
Justice Okoi Itam. There were six other members, including Professor
Jadesola Akande, an experienced and highly respected academic and
university administrator, and Ray Ekpu, the journalist. Ms. Turi Akerele
was later deployed as legal counsel to the Commission. A flamboyant but
highly capable alumnus, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, led a team
representing the students.
The Commission’s report was submitted in February 2000 and was
released, along with the Government’s white paper, later that year. The
Commission expressed its strong belief that seven named individuals had
participated in the killings—Frank Idahosa (Efosa), Didi Yuletide,
Kazeem Bello (Kato), and four individuals who were identified only by
their nicknames or Christian names—Innocent, Athanasius, “Ochuko”, and
“Chunk.” The last was identified as the then head of the Black Axe
secret cult. The Commission also recommended the investigation of 16
other individuals, including Emeka Oguaju and the nine involved in the 7
March episode. The Panel criticised the police investigation of the
case and recommended that the Inspector-General of Police should set up a
special task force to take it over. I have already mentioned the
recommendations concerning the Chief Magistrate who hastily tried and
acquitted the 7 March culprits, as well as Efosa’s lawyer.
It took me several months, and a number of visits to Abuja, to obtain
the Commission’s report and the White Paper. Dissatisfied with the
progress of the court cases, and armed with the report, I visited the
Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige. After I had
expressed my concerns over the case and highlighted the Commission’s
recommendations concerning its investigation, he assured me that,
although the case was being prosecuted by the Osun State
Attorney-General’s office, his Ministry would work with that office. He
sent for the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Musiliu Smith, who agreed
that he would immediately establish the recommended special task force.
This he did, and a senior police officer, ACP Tonye Ibitibituwa, soon
arrived in Osogbo with a team. However, in spite of the efforts of this
task force, no further arrests were made. We also liaised with the Osun
State Attorney-General, who assured us that his office was seriously
following up the case. I must say that he did personally prosecute the
case.
As I have stated, the cases against those charged in the Chief
Magistrate’s Court for belonging to an illegal organisation eventually
came to nothing. However, we were very hopeful of a successful
prosecution of the murder cases against Efosa and company. The case in
the Osogbo High Court, which commenced on 9 April 2001, wound on.
Evidence for the prosecution was taken from a number of students and
some other witnesses. There was adjournment after adjournment. In
mid-2002, the Judge hearing the case was transferred to Iwo, and the
case along with it. There was a further delay while the exhibits were
also subsequently taken to Iwo. To the amazement of everyone, the Judge
upheld a “No Case” submission by the defence on 5 November 2002. The
three accused persons were released and they subsequently disappeared…
NOTE: What the foregoing, which is just an abridged version of Prof.
Makanjuola’s very detailed account of the tragedy, reveals very clearly
is that it is indeed very easy for people to get away with murder in our
country. And that has contributed to the culture of impunity that we
witness today. For readers who may be interested in the book, they can
contact Mosuro Publishers in Ibadan through
mosuro@skannet.com<mailto:mosuro@skannet.com> while the website is
www.mosurobooks.com<http://www.mosurobooks.com/>. The contact
numbers are 08033229113 and 027517474.
Tinubu Should Watch It!
When the ‘Bata’ drum is sounding abnormally loud, according to a Yoruba
adage, it is about to burst. I hope some of the people around Asiwaju
Bola Tinubu can whisper to him that he needs to be careful. In the
build-up to last Saturday gubernatorial elections in Ondo State, it was
very distressing watching some of his henchmen as they demonised
respected Yoruba leaders. Chief Ayo Adebanjo was called names; Dr Olu
Agunloye whose aspiration was upended at the midnight party “primaries”
in Bourdillon suddenly became a traitor for leaving the party in
protest. Even Chief Olu Falae, who hails from Ondo State and should know
what is good for his people, was abused for pitching tent with the
incumbent Governor Olusegun Mimiko. And then Mimiko himself had to
endure all manner of insults from Tinubu and his men for no reason other
than that he refused to join ACN. The charge against him was that he
“betrayed” Tinubu and nobody told us how, except for some nebulous claim
of “forensic assistance” to the Governor when he was prosecuting his
case at the election tribunal. Now what is that?
Since we cannot all sleep and lay our heads in the same direction, as
the Yoruba would say, there is significant value in the opposition
platform that Tinubu offers. But he cannot be mouthing democracy based
on free choice yet deny others their right to decide which political
party to belong or who to associate with. As an admirer of Tinubu, I
will advise that he takes a step back to reflect on his politics and see
where he might need to make course correction before he loses the plot.
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