Who killed Marshall
Harry?
Who killed Bola Ige?
Who killed Aminasoari
Kala Dikibo?
Who killed Funsho
Williams?
Who spearheaded all
the other political assassinations that have taken place in Nigeria from the
inception of our “new” democracy in 1999, till date?
As a 10-year-old
child, I was pretty observant. I read the papers almost daily and I
eavesdropped on political conversations in the family. I think what sparked my
interest in politics was the murder of an Imo State senatorial aspirant,
Ogbonnaya Uche, the father of a girl whom I really admired in primary school. I
stood for academic excellence & distinguishment, and watching Ojiugo Uche
(daughter of the slain politician) called out so many times to accept academic
awards on her graduation marvelled me. I, just a year from graduating at the
time, made a pact with myself that I too would be called out.
On Saturday 8th
February 2003, 3 alleged gunmen shot Chief Ogbonnaya Uche in his Owerri house.
Being a frontline politician for All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP), major
rival to the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). His assassination was
suspected to have been politically instigated.
Before Ogbonnaya Uche’s
assassination he was running for Imo State’s Orlu constituency Senatorial seat. He was the ANPP flag
bearer and his major opponent at the time was PDP’s Arthur Nzeribe.
Arthur Nzeribe is
known to be the longest serving Senator in Nigeria, he’s known for his die-hard
attitude and also as politician who cannot be double-crossed. I am not implying
that Mr Nzeribe was involved in OGB’s murder but I am concerned that I did not
find any records that showed that the police took in Arthur Nzeribe or any
other political opponnents in for questioning after OGB’s assassination. I
believe it is only logical that in cases that seem to have political
involvement, opponents should be interrogated. After police investigations, a
group of hoodlums were paraded as his assassinators, no political big wigs were
indicted, OGB was laid to rest and the chapter of his assassination was closed
up soon. I was only a child when all of this happened, but that was when I lost
all faith in Nigeria’s Police Force.
I remember the name
Marshall Harry vividly. Judging from how often his name was mentioned when I
was around people in Port Harcourt who were interested in Politics, I viewed
him as some sort of political legend. Chief Marshall Isokrari Harry was a very
active PDP stalwart in 1999. He decamped to the ANPP (All Nigeria’s People
Party) later on. He became the South-south co-ordinator during the 2003 General
elections. It was recorded that Marshall Harry applied to use the Liberation
Stadium Port Harcourt to kick off the ANPP’s campaign rally. He was asked to
pay Seven million, five hundred thousand Naira for a stadium that was used earlier
on by the PDP and they only paid Eight hundred thousand Naira. Chief Marshall Harry
spoke out saying that he refused to be harassed and intimidated by the PDP.
Marshall Harry finally made the payment of Seven million, five hundred thousand
Naira to secure the stadium for use on the 8th of March, 2003 but he
was shot at his house on the 5th of March, 2003.
On the 5th
of March 2003, the then ANPP chairman Don Etiebet released a statement making
it known that he felt the PDP was responsible for Marshall’s death. I am
writing this essay in 2013 but no PDP members have been indicted,
A group of hoodlums
were paraded as the killers on national media, but were the sponsors ever
found? The hoodlums didn’t take any of Marshall Harry’s valuables so the theory
that it was an assassination with high-end sponsors is valid.
In Port Harcourt circles, Aminasoari
Kala Dikibo popularly known as A.K Dikibo was another name I always saw in the
papers. I remember waking up one morning barely a year after Marshall Harry was
murdered and hearing people say “Ah, they don kill A.K Dikibo oh”. The then
President and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, Retired General Olusegun
Obasanjo declared in a media chat that armed robbers killed AKD. He was the
Vice-chairman of the PDP South-south region, he was known to be very
opinionated. He was on his way to a zonal meeting when he was murdered. Several
questions arose as to what the purpose of the meeting was, If AKD was acting as
an obstacle to the intentions of certain politicians, and so on. Are we going
to pretend that he was slain by a group of armed robbers? There were no political
connections? Lets assume that he was truly killed by armed robbers, why weren’t
they found?
How can a Country’s
Attorney General be murdered and up till date, his killers have not been found?
How is it that all the people arrested and tried for the murder of the ATTORNEY
GENERAL OF A FEDERATION were acquitted? This to me is very mind-boggling. Chief
Ajibola Ige was murdered on the 23rd of December 2001. 12 years on,
we are still waiting on the Government and The Nigerian Police Force to tell us
their findings after Investigating. We want to know what happened to Bola Ige!
The people mentioned
above are only a few of the politicians who have lost their lives in Nigeria’s
so-called “New found Democracy” I have asked myself a lot
of times if Nigeria is worth dying for. I am not unpatriotic, I love my country
but I feel like we are terminally ill. Any man with vision who tries to speak
up against the ills in our government is cut down and the change we seek is
still very far away from us. We are still burdened with the same under-developed
infrastructure we faced in 1999 and in some cases, worsened situations. An example
would be Federal Government Colleges and Tertiary Institutions.
The Government and the
Nigerian Police Force owe the families of every single slain politician,
reports on their investigation. I personally believe that most of the
assassinations were spear- headed by people in the government at the time. We
will never forget our slain heroes, they have been penned down in our history
memoirs and their legacy would guide us, the youth. I can only wish that one
day the killers amongst us face the music and pay the price for all the
atrocities against humanity they have committed.
