Justice minister shot dead

Nigeria's Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Bola Ige, was shot dead on Sunday night by unknown gunmen who burst into his residence in the southwestern city of Ibadan, government officials and family members said.

Ige, aged 71, had returned home from the capital, Abuja, for the Christmas break, and had just hosted a party for close political associates and friends when the gunmen broke into his residence after 22:00 GMT (9 pm local time) and shot him.

"We have just received the news with great shock," Information Minister Jerry Gana told a news conference on Monday. A family member told IRIN: "He was rushed to the hospital alive, but there was not much the doctors could do as he died a short while afterwards."

Ige's murder appeared linked to a spate of political violence that has rocked the southwestern region over the past week. There is widespread suspicion that the violence is linked to a bitter feud between Governor Bisi Akande of Osun, Ige's home state, and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore. Like Ige, both are members of Nigeria's third biggest political party, Alliance for Democracy (AD).

Two weeks ago gunmen invaded the Osun legislature and disrupted proceedings as the dispute between the governor and his deputy was about to be debated. This forced the house to adjourn indefinitely.

On 19 December, parliamentarian Olagbaju Odunayo, a known ally of Omisore, was murdered by unknown assailants in the Osun State town of Ile-Ife. This sparked rioting that resulted in the burning of buildings and the killing of several people by rival political groups.

Ige is known to be a strong backer of Akande, who was his deputy when he was governor of Oyo State between 1979 and 1983.

President Olusegun Obasanjo cancelled a scheduled trip to Zimbabwe following the death of Ige and called a security meeting instead to discuss the situation in the country. Though not a member of the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP), Ige was a close aide of the president, who provided him access to political support in his southwestern stronghold, where Obasanjo had not done well in the 1999 presidential election.