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Man confesses to killing justice minister

    ABIDJAN

    Nigeria's police said they were holding a 27-year-old who confessed to being a member of an eight-man gang that shot dead Minister of Justice and Attorney General Bola Ige at his home in the southwestern city of Ibadan on the night of 23 December.

    The head of police in southwest Oyo State, Mike Okuo, told a news conference on Thursday in the capital Ibadan that a number of suspects had been arrested in addition to the man, who gave himself up to the police on Wednesday. According to Okuo, the man, whose name he would not disclose, said he was promised one million naira (US $8,960.6) for the crime. Okuo described the information provided by the suspect as "very useful" and said those he named would be arrested within 24 hours.

    Ige's murder was the latest in a spate of political killings in southwestern Nigeria that are linked to a bitter feud between Governor Bisi Akande of Osun, Ige's home state, and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore. All three belong to Nigeria's third biggest political party, Alliance for Democracy (AD). Ige was known to be a strong backer of Akande.

    Nigeria’s senate began an emergency session on Friday in response to the assassination of the minister.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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