Focus on rising cases of political assassination

The killers who snuffed life out of Barnabas Igwe, president of a local branch of the Nigerian bar association, and his wife at Onitsha, southeastern Nigeria on 1 September, were spectacular in their brutality. They blocked the couple’s car at a busy intersection in the early evening, then dealt each several matchete cuts and shot them repeatedly. The killers then laid their bodies on the road and rode over them with a car before escaping into the dusk. This roused outrage from a shocked populace. But it is only one incident in a string of political assassinations recorded across Nigeria in recent months. Some of the most known cases include the 15 August murder of Ahmad Pategi, chairman of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the central region Kwara State; the 29 August murder of Victor Nwankwo, publisher and politician, in southeast Enugu State and the 24 September killing of Isyaku Mohammed, chairman of the newly registered United Nigeria People’s Party in the northern city of Kano. A common feature of all these cases was that nothing was taken from the victims to indicate a motive of robbery. All the victims also had strong political views or affiliations to justify the tag of political assassination. Igwe was a very vocal critic of the Anambra State government. He had opposed the introduction of an anti-crime vigilante group (known as the Bakassi Boys) in Onitsha and other parts of the state by governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju, taking particular exception to the anti-crime outfit’s unorthodox methods such as beheading and burning of armed robbery suspects. A week before his death, Igwe led the local leadership of the lawyers’ body to issue a seven-day ultimatum to governor Mbadinuju to clear up the eight months arrears of wages owed striking civil servants in the state or resign. The state judiciary had been particularly hit by the prolonged strike, with the activities of courts paralysed. Suspicions turned on the Anambra government following his death. Residents also compared the manner he was cut down with matchetes to the well-known execution style of the Bakassi Boys using the same tool. But the governor has denied any complicity in the murders. The murder of Nwankwo has been linked by his associates to a book he was about to publish, detailing how the Enugu State government allegedly embezzled 4.2 billion naira (US $33.33 million) of public funds. The other incidents have also been connected to local political wrangles in the states where they occurred. According to Catherine Acholonu, a special adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo, these assassinations revolve around the ambitions of politicians to emerge victorious in general elections due before the end of the first quarter of 2003. "As 2003 draws nearer, politicians are becoming restless and reports of violence are on the increase as each aspirant struggles to impose himself on the electorate, " she told a workshop on emerging leaders in the capital, Abuja, last week. "We are hearing of guns and ammunitions being imported into the country by politicians who use armed robbers and cultists to silence their opponents," she added. The police authorities have expressed concern about the trend and have stepped up security measures to check it. They have also had to intervene to investigate allegations and counter-allegations of assassination plots being traded between Chibudom Nwuche, deputy speaker of the House of representatives, and Peter Odili, governor of his home state of Rivers, in the south. Another high profile case brought to the attention of the police was an alleged plot to kill Vice President Atiku Abubakar during a recent visit to Kwara State. Yet there are people who blame both President Obasanjo’s government and, specifically, the police for the recent spate of politically motivated murders recorded across the country. Charles Mafua, chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association in the northern city of Kaduna said the failure of the government to find those who assassinated Bola Ige, former minister of justice and attorney general, in December last year has been an incentive for similar crimes. "Encouraged by the government’s inability to track down the killers of its law officer and other Nigerians, assassinations, political or otherwise, have assumed (the level) of a national pastime, a very attractive and lucrative business for the teeming jobless youths and adults of our country," Mafua told the Thisday daily. Arthur Nwankwo, the elder brother of the murdered publisher, alleged that two armed policemen witnessed the killing of the younger Nwankwo in front of his residence. According to him they "did nothing to protect him or prevent his assassination and did not make any official report or entry of the incident". If the government or the police were lethargic about dealing with political assassinations, they appear to have been spurred into action by the Onitsha murder of the Igwe. With strong suspicion falling on the Bakassi Boys, the police used the opportunity to raid all known operational offices of the outfit, arresting hundreds of the operatives and freeing dozens of suspects they held in detention. Explaining his reason for ordering the crackdown, Obasanjo said security reports had shown that most of the vigilante groups that have sprouted all over the country were being used to perpetrate political violence. He said such a situation could not be tolerated with general elections imminent. "I am prepared to shed the last drop of my blood to ensure violence-free elections in Nigeria," Obasanjo told reporters. But already in police files are the cases of many who are victims of political assassination, whose murders are begging to be unsolved.