Police Begin Fresh Probe Of Ige, Williams, Others’ Murder

Chris Agbambu, Abuja - 01.03.2008

THE Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, has constituted different panels to reinvestigate the high profile killings in the country between 1999 to 2007 when he assumed office.

Informed Police sources disclosed to Saturday Tribune that the IGP, who was not impressed with the shoddy investigations of such cases, has ordered their reopening, to ensure that justice is done at the end of the day.

The source revealed that this action followed a directive from President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that in view of the belief of his administration in the rule of law, such cases should be revisited as a way of restoring confidence in the Nigeria Police force.

According to the source, the president was very emphatic that all those who perpetrated the heinous crime should be brought to book, as it seemed that innocent people were being made to pay for the sins they knew nothing about.
The cases, Saturday Tribune gathered, include the

assassination of the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige; Amina Sauki Dikibo, Harry Marshal, Barnabas Igwe and his wife, Amaka, and Funsho Williams.

The source disclosed that President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, who is displeased because of the bad image these unresolved murders had created for the PDP government in the last nine years, vowed that the mystery must be uncovered.

The police source revealed that some new arrests were likely to be made in these cases, as it had been alleged that some directors of prosecution in some states had succumbed to political interests.

For example, the source said that the case of Barnabas Igwe and his wife, Amaka, who were killed in Onitsha on September 22, 2002, is a test case, as all the culprits arrested in connection with the murder were all released following the reluctance of the Anambra State government to prosecute them.

Saturday Tribune revealed that the IGP has vowed to get to the bottom of these cases, maintaining that the issue of unresolved assassinations had to be brought to an end.