Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston
USAfricaonline.com and NigeriaCentral.com

Fryo and Omisore: Some troubling thoughts

By Dr. Ibiyinka Solarin

My mission is my column, this week, is not about the probable culpability or otherwise of the duo above on the assassination of the former attorney general and minister of justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ajibola Idowu Ige. The legal process will unravel that and I have to confess the wound of this heinous act is still too raw for me to attempt a semblance of any objective analysis. What is agitating my mind is how these two come to be thrown up in the socio-political discourse of the Nigerian society. I have read and re-read the interview granted by Iyiola Omisore, deputy governor of Osun state, to the December 2001 edition of the Tempo magazine.

I implore the readers of this article to please get a copy of the edition of magazine to read for themselves. The December 29 2001 online edition of the Newswatch magazine reproduced it, in case one does not have access to the original. Reading Iyiola Omisore in the interview made me sick and I dare say it will make many sick. I asked my self over and over again, 'how could a character such as this individual this be the deputy governor of a state?' The unrestrained language, the venom and vitrol directed towards both Ige and Governor Bisi Akande would make one's skin crawl.

Here are Omisore's exact words speaking about his Governor (Akande): "He is a nonentity. There were facts that he was at one time mad. He is an 'alawoku' [literally translated to mean an unredeemed psychiatric patient] and there is no way he can be totally cured of the madness in him." On the assassinated attorney general and minister of justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ajibola Ige, Iyiola Omisore had this to say. 'Recently too, Ige came on the radio here to insult me and my family. THAT IS HIS LAST ONE. [emphasis mine]. He was beaten yesterday, the people of Ife beat him up and he was crying like a baby as they removed him cap and his glasses……we had to beg the mob to free him……if he insults me, he has insulted my people and they have the right to react….I had to beg them because WHAT THE PEOPLE WANTED TO DO WAS MORE THAN THAT. IF HE IS WISE, HE MUST NOT COME TO IFE AGAIN'

The desperation that drives Nigeria's contractor-politicians is great and the murderous ferocity with which they pursue public office in search of lucre is a veritable indictment of our society. In the interview referenced above, Omisore also said he could make the state where is the deputy governor 'ungovernable'. But with the death of Ige, the arrest of his [Omisore's] and Ige's security aides and the search light beamed on him, Omisore in effect did a volte face. His excellency now says, in the Newswatch Jan 18, 2002, sans the exuberance, the glee and triumph evident in the Tempo interview, that he had ' already walked into the palace [of the Ooni] before I realized Bola Ige's cap was removed at all....When we got to the car park, I was asking my chief detail what happenend?"

Of course this contrasts with the Tempo interview which he derisively and gleefully described Ige as crying like a baby and he [Omisore] had to beg the mob to free him. He denied ever knowing Fryo and the chief suspect's allegation that it was Omisore who instructed his brother Kola Omisore to remove and obtain Ige's cap for him. Omisore says in the Guardian of Jan 17th, 2002 , 'I will never plan the killing of anybody. I have never in my life conceived the idea of killing anybody. I have never even conceived the idea of thuggery. I don't even know how to harass anybody'. Well, we do not know for a fact yet what Iyiola Omisore did or did not do with regards to the murder of Ajibola Ige. All we have so far are allegations of his probable involvement from a suspect. If the investigation leads to him and his guilt is established, and we speak not of vicarious guilt here, he ought to be made to rue the day and damn the hour he conceived of homicide as a weapon of electoral politics.

With respect to Olugbenga Damola Adebayo, a.k.a.Fryo, the question that comes to mind is how did a product of a Nigerian university become a hired gun, a political hack, hatchet man and a thug? He was by his account hired to rent a mob to disrupt the proceedings at the Osun state house of assembly, to rent a mob to embarrass and physically assault the attorney general and minister of justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and he was present at the 'celebration' of the success of the assault where an assignment to murder Ige was proposed to him by Iyiola Omisore. Students of Nigerian universities are available as hired guns, thugs and party hacks? Fryo mentioned being given various sums of money by Omisore to go to Abuja and to pay for the merriment to celebrate the assault on Ige.

He was told to move into the Peoples Democratic Party from the Alliance for Democracy, preparatory to the chief financier Omisore following suit. All this he said he did at the instance and instigation of Omisore. Fryo in ThisDay Sat Jan 19th 2002, described himself as a 'small fly' who is being offered as a scape goat. He appears not to see himself as responsible for his actions. Nowhere did he suggest that he was coerced or pressured , he was a willing and paid hack, masquerading as a student of Obafemi Awolowo Universtity. He said he 'mobilised ' his fellow students for these activities on behalf of Omisore. Obviously his confederates were paid too.

Iyiola Omisore and Damola Adebayo represent the reality of the political praxis of our electoral politics. These two individuals can point to no animating impulse or ideas that drive them into seeking public office beyond the search for lucre.

We do not know yet if investigation will reveal that that their desperation drove them to homicide but we know that their conduct and utterances are no way aberrant .There are many like them in all the political parties as well as the tiers of government in our society as the politically inspired killings in many other states [ i. e, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Abia, Bornu ] have shown.

If the investigation establishes a case of conspiracy to commit murder as well as murder is established ; and their guilt proven, an example ought to be made of them. That will help in putting people of their ilk on notice that Nigerian democracy is about contestation of ideas and the promotion of the belief in popular consent. That way our society would have made it clear to all, regardless of how highly placed, that violent methods have no place in the democratic Nigeria we are trying to build.
Solarin, a political scientist and university lecturer at Texas College in Tyler, is a contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica The Newspaper where his columns appear.

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