Over the years since independence especially, Nigeria has witnessed quite a number of murder cases. some of theses cases were resolved and the culprits brought to book. other saw no resolution and up until now are still mysteries to the nation.
I write to educate the younger generations about these unsolved murders and to also let our security bodies know that the Nigeria public has not forgotten about these cases.
Again, if anyone knows the solution to the resolution and or the extent and level these cases are presently he or she can come up and give hints. the souls of these persons who were murdered in cold blood may just be the reason our dear country is suffering so many losses in diverse sectors
1. BOLA IGE
Born: 13 September 1930, Osun
Assassinated: 23 December 2001, Ibadan
He was born in Kaduna, the former capital of defunct Northern Nigeria to a humble family and by dint of hard work and the grace of God rose to the top of his chosen profession – the legal profession and his vocation – politics. He moved to the west at the age of thirteen in 1943 and attended the prestigious Ibadan Grammar School and the University of Ibadan where he studied Classics.
His leadership traits manifested early in life when at the age of twenty-three he became the organizing secretary of the defunct Action Group in 1953. He used his charisma and natural organizational ability to increase the membership of the party far beyond the west where it was founded in 1951 as an offshoot of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa. He later studied law at the University of London and was called to the inner temple bar in 1961. He returned home immediately and formed Bola Ige and co, a law firm that produced many legal luminaries.
2. DELE GIWA
Dele Giwa (16 March 1947 – 19 October 1986)
Sumonu Oladele “Baines” Giwa was born on 16 March 1947 to a poor family working in the palace of Oba Adesoji Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife. He attended local Authority Modern School in Lagere, Ile-lfe. When his father moved to Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife as a laundry man, he gained admission to that school.[1] Dele Giwa travelled to the USA for his higher education, earning a BA in English from Brooklyn College in 1977 and enrolled for a Graduate program at Fordham University. He worked for The New York Times as a news assistant for four years after which he relocated to Nigeria to work with Daily Times.
Dele Giwa was killed by a mail bomb in his Lagos home on 19 October 1986.[10] The assassination occurred two days after he had been interviewed by State Security Service (SSS) officials. In an off-the-record interview with airport journalists, Lt. Col. A.K. Togun, the Deputy Director of the SSS had claimed that on 9 October Dele Giwa and Alex Ibru had organised a media parley for media executives and the newly created SSS. Togun claimed that it was at this meeting that the SSS and the media executives reached a secret censorship agreement. Under this agreement, the media was to report any story with potential to embarrass the government to the SSS before they tried to publish same.
Giwa had been invited by the SSS to their headquarters for the first time on 19 September 1986 after writing an article in which he described the newly introduced Second-Tier Foreign Exchange Market (SFEM) as “God’s experiment” and suggested that if SFEM failed, the people would will stone their leaders in the streets. Giwa was interviewed and his statement taken by two SSS operatives. He was later taken to meet with Lt Col Togun, the deputy director of the agency in his office. Togun is reported to have told Giwa that he found nothing offensive in the story as Giwa had also stated in the same story that he was hopeful that Babangida seemed determined to make SFEM work.
3. KUDIRAT ABIOLA
Kudirat Abiola (1951 – 4 June 1996)
was a Nigerian proShe was born in 1951 in Zaria in Nigeria. Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was the second woman to have married her husband. At the time of her death, she was his senior wife.[2]
She was assassinated whilst her husband was being detained by the Nigerian Government.[3] Her husband was believed to have been the winning candidate in the Nigerian elections that had taken place in 1993, and he was arrested shortly after they were annulled by the government of the dictator Ibrahim Babangida. The killing was the subject of an investigation and trial many years later. According to accounts, the murder was ordered and then carried out by six men. Abiola died in her car from machine gun fire. Her driver also died. Her personal assistant, who was later accused of being involved with her assassins, was in the car but was not hurt.[2]
Her husband continued to be detained without charge after her death. He died in suspicious circumstances just before it was said that he was to be released on 7 July 1998-democracy campaigner. She was assassinated whilst her husband, Moshood Abiola, was being detained by the Nigerian Government.
4. FUNSHO WILLIAMS
(May 9, 1948 – July 27, 2006)
Funsho Williams attended the St. Paul’s Catholic school at Ebute Metta and later St Gregory’s College, Lagos.[1] In 1968, he studied at the University of Lagos, attaining a degree in civil engineering. He then went on to attend the New Jersey Institute of Technology for his Master’s degree. In the mid-1990s, Williams decided to enter into politics in order that he could formulate policy, rather than just carry it out. He first joined the United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP), but after the suspicious death of its leader, General Sani Abacha he moved to the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
After a short time, Williams again switched parties, this time to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).They had won the 2003 elections under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Williams had stood twice before in the Lagos State Governorship (Gubernatorial) election. At the time of his death he was hoping to be nominated as the PDP Gubernatorial candidate for Lagos State. He had vowed to wrest control of the wealthy state from the Alliance for Democracy Party. On July 27, 2006, Funsho Williams was found bound, strangled, and stabbed at his home in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, an exclusive and wealthy neighborhood in Lagos.[3]
On July 28, 2006, two people were arrested in connection with his death. One was his campaign manager, and the other was a senator and former Works Minister Kingsley Adeseye Ogunlewe. Ogunlewe was also hoping to be the PDP Gubernatorial candidate.[2].
Williams was laid to rest at the Victoria Court Cemetery, Lagos.[4] He was survived by his wife, Hilda, and four children
5. EUNICE OLAWALE
(born, July 23, 1974)
a deaconess of the Divine Touch Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and a mother of seven. She was an indigene of Ekiti State and had been married to her husband, Elisha Olawale, from Ondo state since 2000. She was described by her husband as hardworking, God-fearing and supportive in sustaining the family. She was also described by others as a humble woman and a passionate preacher. The family lived in the Kubwa area of the capital city of Abuja, Nigeria. She was well known to have been preaching in that area for many years..
Eunice usually left her home every morning at 5 a.m. before dawn to evangelize (usually referred to as morning cry) in the streets of Abuja. Several days before her gruesome murder, she overheard nearby Muslims comment about her preaching, that she should be chased away. She also overheard another conversation from a mosque behind their home which implied that her preaching wasn’t the truth about God. After she informed her husband about what she heard, he cautioned her to be careful.[7] After those incidents, Eunice suspended her daily morning evangelism for about a week after which she resumed. A Muslim cleric who came to their house requested for food for his Islamic school. After she stated that she didn’t have any food to give him at that time, he left.[8]
Eunice was murdered on the 9th of July, 2016 after she left the house at the usual time to preach. According to several media reports, Eunice was murdered between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. Accounts differ as to the exact manner she was murdered. Several reports stated that she was beheaded and stabbed.[9] Other sources stated that she was stabbed multiple times in the stomach and the leg before bleeding to death. People heard her screaming “Blood of Jesus!” at about the time she was murdered.[7] At around 6: 30 to 7:30 am, her husband Olawale woke up from his bed. The first sign of his wife’s murder were alarming calls from his children about comments made by some nearby football players, specifying a woman killed while preaching and her lifeless body laying on the ground in a pool of blood. Immediately, he heard the information, Olawale dialed his wife’s phone to verify, but realized it had been switched off. Afterwards, Olawale got more information and directive to confirm his dead wife at the police station. He saw her lifeless body. Her megaphone, bible and mobile phone were still close to her body.
The gruesome murder of Eunice sparked outrage on social media among Nigerians especially between Christians and Muslims which further revealed divides among religious lines. The state of religious tolerance in the country became an issue of concern. Six suspects were arrested in connection with the murder. Many residents living close to the area where Eunice was murdered moved away for fear of being arrested as suspects. Christians were urged to protect themselves as much as possible especially while evangelizing.
The wife of the Vice President, Oludolapo Osinbajo and pastor E. A. Adeboye paid condolence visits to the family. Her burial was put on hold until further investigations revealed the perpetrators and brought them to justice. Eunice’s murder did not deter other preachers, one of whom was reported to continue her morning preaching at the exact spot Eunice was murdered. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) gave the Nigerian police 14 days ultimatum to undergo further investigations pertaining to her murder and bring the perpetrators to book. Her death case remains unresolved
6. Marshal Alex Badeh (retd.),
Badeh was shot dead along the Abuja-Keffi Expressway, a large number of Nigerians are still skeptical whether the real killers have been found.
Although the police said they had arrested some suspects, who admitted to killing the former CDS, more than a few Nigerians have raised eyebrows on the development.
Badeh, who was murdered on December 18, 2018, while returning from his farm, was the only person killed out of the three occupants of the vehicle.
This has continued to fuel speculations that it was not a robbery attack, but assassination
However, the day he was reportedly knocked down by the car, his remains were prepared for burial before his wife and other family members could see his corpse. They were not allowed to have his body. Odeleke was a critic of the military government at the time. Till date, the matter could have been forgotten by many, including the security agencies, save for his loved ones.
Also, on Friday, October 6, 1995, between 8.15am and 8.30am, Chief Alfred Rewane, a businessman and close associate of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, was murdered in his residence in Ikeja, Lagos State, by five yet-to-be-identified men.
Although the police arrested seven persons in connection with the crime, five of them died while in detention and the remaining two were freed based on weak evidence presented by the prosecution. That was the end of the case.
On November 12, 1995, James Kalto, a journalist and a former writer with Tell and Tempo, was abducted and murdered. He was believed to be one of the many victims of Gen Sani Abacha’s brutal rule. His death remains a mirage and his killers remain faceless till date.
The cruel fate also befell the Peoples Democratic Party National Vice Chairman, Chief Aminasoari Dikibo, who was murdered on February 6, 2004. The killers were never apprehended, though the police, according to some analysts, allegedly adopted a face-saving tactic of parading some armed robbers as the suspects.
Marshall Harry
Another puzzling assassination was that of the National Vice-Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party and Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign coordinator in 2003, Marshall Harry. He was brutally murdered in his Abuja residence before the 2003 presidential election and as of the time of filing this report, nobody had been apprehended for the crime.
Also unresolved was the July 2006 assassination of Funsho Williams, a PDP governorship aspirant in Lagos State. He was found bound, strangled and stabbed at his home in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Although the police arraigned some suspects before the court, Justice Adeniyi Adebajo of the Lagos High Court freed the suspects charged with Williams’ murder for lack of evidence by the prosecution.
Also, on Monday, January 25, 2010, assassins killed Otunba Dipo Dina, the 2007 Action Congress governorship candidate in Ogun State, in the Ota area of the state.
Security sources had said Dina was attacked while returning from Abeokuta, the state capital, to his home in Lagos.
A sore wound that may not heal.