Murders Without Murderers

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbonna Onovo, certainly has a daunting task in his hands. Reason. The Vice-President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has directed the IG to provide preliminary findings on the assassination of late Mr Dipo Dina, the Action Congress AC, governorship candidate in the 2007 general election in Ogun State.

The Police IG was also directed to submit weekly reports on the findings of the police on the matter until the culprits were apprehended. Late Dina was assassinated by unknown gunmen at Sango-Ota, Ogun State, on the 25th January 2010.

Dipo’s death has become like one of those mystery assassinations that sent a wave of shock through the spine of Nigerians. His killing is one too many in recent times in the nation’s democratic experiment that has lasted about 11 years. The incident deserves not only the attention of the police, but all security and intelligence agencies in the country.

In the later part of 2009, two Rivers indigenes were brutally assassinated. Those murdered were Mr. Ignatius Ajuru and Hon. Nsiegbe, a former lawmaker in the Rivers State House of Assembly. These killings have remained unresolved. The recent assassination of Dina has yet added to the trail of unresolved killings howbeit political in the country.

These latest killings and many others in the past have once again brought to the fore the state of insecurity in the country. Where is the sanctity of human life? Where is the sanctity of human life when promising Nigerians are cut down in their prime?

It is senseless and unnecessary for young Nigerian to be murdered for political or any other ambition. Certainly, the trend will discourage young citizens with sound education and mind to be active players in politics. Nigerians endowed with material resources might leave the arena of politics for mediocrities. Already, we have sufficient mediocrities that parade as leaders. To add to the existing number might spell doom for the nation.

Indeed it is sad that the nation is being turned into a theatre of blood-lefting. It is time the government made concerted efforts at curbing the trend. But what appears more worrisome are the declarations made by the police soon after assassination incidents of this nature. Such declarations are made to the effect that the killings are robbery related, rather than outright assassinations.

It was therefore not surprising when the newly posted Ogun State Police Commissioner, Abdusalam Daura, declared that the incident looked more like a case of armed robbery than assassination. This has always been the case with the police whenever such incident occurs. What crime defection theory did the commissioner employ in arriving at his conclusion.?

It is heart-rending that a high-ranking police officer of the rank of commissioner would jump into such a hasty conclusion even before the commencement of investigations. The danger in this kind of inference is that sponsors of assassinations, be they politically motivated or otherwise, might tutor assailants to create a make-believe robbery scenario while attacking their victims in order to go undetected. But the question is when the police hastily declare such criminal acts as robbery, why do they remain unraveled? Does that suggest that a robbery incident which claims a life is less grievous than assassination?

One common denominator in all these orchestrated killings is the inability of law enforcement agents to bring the perpetrators to book, even when they promise to expose those behind the act with statements like “the perpetrators will be surely brought, to book”, “no stone will be left unturned in the search for the criminals” etc usually made soon after the commission of the crime. I have always been of the rich that a crime not punished is an incentive to other criminals to do likewise.

If the police would truly solve the mystery of Dina’s assassination, they have enough clues at their disposal. It was alleged that soon after the 2007 gubernatorial election which Dipo lost, he had running battles with his state government which eventually earned him arrest and prosecution. If that is anything to go by, it provides enough clues for the police.

The time has come to insist that ‘enough is enough’ of these murders without murderers. The inspector-general of police must go cracking immediately and go after the killers.

As Hon. Nsiegbe, Ignatius Ajuru and Dipo join the long list of the assassinated i.e. Bola Ige, Marshal Harry, A. K. Dikibo, Funsho Williams etc since, the inception of ‘garrison’ politics in 1999, will their killings go the way of others which hitherto have remained unriddled?

Arnold Alalibo