The public outcry against his murder was awesome. The public was aghast that he could be killed right inside his bedroom with his police aides not too far away. Where were the policemen when their charge was killed? Were they in the know of the dastardly act? Who could have done it and why? These were some of the questions people asked. We also asked the same questions in this column on August 1, 2006, five days after Funsho Williams was killed in his Ikoyi, Lagos home.
We warned then that the case should not be allowed to go the way of similar murders like those of Chief Bola Ige and Dele Giwa, to mention a few. Seven years down the line, what we are now hearing about the case from the police is not edifying at all. Despite our warning six years ago, the police may fail to bring the suspected killers to book, going by the latest development in their trial. On Monday, the police told Justice Adeniyi Adebajo of the Lagos High Court that some evidence vital to the prosecution of the case had been destroyed. How?
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Ovie Oyokomino, who is in charge of forensics at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, told the court: ‘’The perishable evidence such as blood samples as well as the vitreous humour of the eye went bad due to interrupted power supply in the course of refrigerating’’. What a way of prosecuting a case. The police like every other establishment in this country know that we don’t have a reliable power system. This is why organisations rely on generators in carrying out their operations. So, the police should have looked for alternative means of preserving this vital evidence. Why rely on the unreliable public power system when they could have used generator 24/7 to preserve this proof?
What the police have done shows that they are not serious about unmasking the killers. They are just paying lip-service to the matter so that the world will see them as working. For God sake, this is a murder case, which should be proved beyond all reasonable doubts. The police should not give room for any doubt, because any iota of doubt will be resolved in the favour of the accused. If tomorrow, the court frees the accused, we know who to hold responsible. As if we knew, we warned against toying with this case in this piece entitled : Who killed Funsho Williams? Seven years ago :
The outrage against his assassination is understandable. In his lifetime, Funsho Williams, an engineer and politician, was a gentleman to the core. He was one of the few politicians around who played the game according to the rules: no hard tackles and no mudslinging. His disposition made many wonder what he was doing in the shark – infested pool of Nigeria politics. Williams was always cool, calm and calculated. Where many were losing their heads, he usually kept his. He was a perfect gentleman who gave a lie to the claim that politics is not for refined people.
A well – heeled gentleman who reached the apogee of his career as permanent secretary in the Lagos State Ministry of Works before he retired, Williams’ ambition was to govern the state. But each time he tried to achieve this dream, he failed. These failures did not deter him, rather they emboldened him to pursue his ambition with renewed vigour. His passion to govern the state of his origin knew no bounds. Williams was not ready to allow any other post stand between him and the office of governor. No other office mattered to him. Because of his passion for the gubernatorial seat, he rejected offers of senatorial seat and ministerial appointment. That was the extent of his love for the governorship post.
As a patient person, Williams was ready to wait for God’s appointed time to be governor. This was why when he lost the governorship ticket of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in 1999, he refused to accept any form of compensation when elders of the party locked both men up in a room and asked them to resolve their differences. Where some in his position would have come up with a long list of demands, Williams reportedly asked Tinubu for nothing. He was said to have maintained that the only thing he wanted was to become the governor of the state. When Tinubu reported the outcome of their meeting to AD elders, they advised that he should make some of Williams’ supporters commissioners. And this was how Dr. Leke Pitan and Mrs Kemi Nelson found their way into Tinubu’s cabinet.
Another politician who benefited immensely from his relationship with Williams was former Works Minister, Mr Seye Ogunlewe. Williams had after losing to Tinubu been offered a senatorial seat. Expectedly, he turned it down and asked that Ogunlewe should take up the offer. In 2003 when he again lost to Tinubu in that year’s governorship election, Williams was offered ministerial appointment. Again and not quiet surprisingly, he rejected the offer.
The lot again fell on Ogunlewe to pick up the job. Williams’ was not prepared to allow any other position distract him. Perhaps his dream might have come true in 2007. Nobody can say. Suffice to say now that this is not going to be as Williams was killed last Thursday in his Ikoyi, Lagos home.
His assassination falls into the same pattern of killings that we have witnesssed in the country in the past five years. Bola Ige. Marshall Harry. Aminasoari Dikibo. Barnabas and Amaka Igwe. A common thread runs through the way these people were killed. Their killers finished them off and just vanished into thin air. Up till today, the killers remain at large and these assassinations remain unresolved. Will Williams’ case go the same way? The police are in a better position to answer this poser. This, however, should not be another unresolved murder case.
The only honour we can do the memory of Williams is to find his killers and the earlier this is done the better. By October 19, this year, it will be 20 years that Dele Giwa was killed by parcel bomb and we are still asking: who killed Dele Giwa? We hope we will not be asking who killed Williams 20 years after?
Jonathan vs governors
May is going to be an interesting month. It is the month we have been waiting for to see how President Goodluck Jonathan and the governors will resolve their differences. Jonathan wants a change of guards at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) led by Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State. The president is not hiding the fact that he no longer wants Amaechi in the saddle.
He has some governors with him, but they don’t have the number with which to achieve the president’s aim. Many of the governors are with Amaechi, at least, up to this moment. Amaechi enjoys the confidence of his colleagues, whether of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or of the opposition parties. For now, the president is finding it difficult to get all the governors, especially of the PDP on his side.
The opposition governors have made it clear that they are for Amaechi, come what may. The president is not relenting. So, it is going to be battle royale if the NGF election holds. Will it hold or will Amaechi be allowed to serve a second term without standing for election just as his predecessor, former Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki? Well, we wait to see what happens. Niger State Governor Babangida Aliyu has given us an insight into what to expect.
He was quoted by a paper as telling his colleagues who are backing the president to remove Amaechi that : ‘’Let me tell you, 10 of you, even 20 of you cannot remove Amaechi. Go and tell him’’. You and I know who the him is. It is no other person than the president. As the adage goes, if you wish to talk to the deaf, you do so through his child, just as Muazu has done in this instance. But will the governors walk the talk or will they chicken out when the chips are down?
