Investigate death of Abiola, Bola Ige, others - Group urges govt

A civil society organisation has called on the Federal Government to investigate the circumstances that led to the killings of Abiola, Bola Ige and Dele Giwa as well as a review of Nigeria’s ceding of the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon and farmer-herder clashes.

The CSO called, Save Nigeria Movement (SNM) has demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari “set up a judicial commission of inquiry, to probe into the circumstances that led to the decision to cede the oil-rich Bakassi Place to neighbouring Cameroon."

Convener of the group, Mr Solomon Semaka, also stressed “the need to revisit several unresolved incidences, including the tragic 1992 Airforce military aircraft C-130 Crash in Lagos state in which over 160 senior and middle-level military officers and the entire crew died," The Vanguard reports.

He recalled, “The 2006 tragic occurrence of an airforce donier 228 aircraft crash in Benue state that killed about (15) senior military officers and the entire crew as well as the sad incident of Boeing 737 plane crash that occurred in October 2006 in Abuja which claimed the lives the late Sultan of Sokoto, Alh Maccido, his Son, Senator Maccido, grandson as well the then deputy governor, Alh Garba Muhammad as well as 98 others”.

He said “Others include, the need to unravel the circumstances of the tragic crash of a naval helicopter in 2012 in Nembe Bayelsa state, which claimed the lives of Gov Patrick Yakowa, Gen Andrew Azazi, the circumstances surrounding the bombing and subsequent murder of Nigeria’s famous journalist Dele Giwa using a parcel Bomb.

“It also includes the need to unravel the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Gloria Okon and her subsequent mysterious death, the circumstances surrounding the murder of Chief Bola Ige in 2001, the burning and killing of the Resident INEC Commissioner and his family in Kano in 2015, the 2011 bombings of the INEC office in Suleja which killed over (25) people”.

According to The Vanguard, the group also wants a review of the ” annulment of June 12 election, which was acclaimed as free and fair by both local and international communities, the circumstances that led to Moshood Abiola’s death and recurring crisis between herdsmen and farmers across the country over the decades, the death of Stella Obasanjo, the former first lady, the death of Ms Arotile, the first female combat pilot the country has ever produced and the invasion of Odi community in Bayelsa state and Zakibiam in Benue state”.

The group also said there was “the need to probe into the circumstances surrounding the genesis of terrorism in the northern part of Nigeria”.

The group in the statement co-signed by Richard Oduma of Coalition of Minority Tribes in Nigeria and Dr. Ndubisi Okon, Center for Advanced History and Civil Rights, argued that if left unattended, “the issues, could pose grave danger to the corporate existence of Nigeria”.

According to them, “It has become pertinent to administer justice to the past unresolved tragic event so that true unity, cohesion and peace of Nigeria will be attained. These sad events have continually widened the gap of Nigeria’s unity based on suspicion among other diverse ethnic groups.

“There is the need to open national conservation that will ultimately lead to a lasting and sustainable reconciliation that will heal every ethnic group of the past and create a sense of oneness,”.