The murder of Nigerian lawyer and politician, Bola Ige has continued to remain a mystery even after 17 years of his demise. The identity of his murderers is still unknown, although, accusatory fingers have been pointed at some people in the past, including one of the 2018 Osun State governorship aspirants, Iyiola Omisore.

Upon the restoration of democracy in 1999, Bola Ige sought the nomination of the Alliance for Democracy party as a presidential candidate but was rejected. Obasanjo, who was the President of Nigeria at the time then appointed Bola Ige as minister of Mines and Power that same year but when he was not able to make significant improvements to service provided by the then National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), he became Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2000. He stood against the imposition of the Sharia law in the northern states of Nigeria and went as far as stopping the Sokoto State government from executing the judgment of a verdict passed by a sharia court to stone a woman, Safiya Hussaini to death for committing adultery.

Bola Ige was about to take up a new position as African’s Representative on the United Nations International Law Commission when he was shot dead in Ibadan in December 2001. The week preceding his death, the long-running feud between the then Osun State Governor, Bisi Akande and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore had allegedly contributed gravely to the death of an Osun legislature at the time, Odunayo Olagbaju. Various people, including Omisore, were tied to Bola Ige’s murder and were arrested and tried for involvement in it but when there was no evidence to prove them guilty, they were all acquitted.

Who then killed Bola Ige? The full details surrounding his death has continued to remain sketchy. His murder remains one of the many unsolved murder cases that has happened in Nigeria and which we may never find answers to. Although Bola Ige’s murder case has been swept under the rug and the identity of the killer is still unknown, a lot of accusatory fingers has been pointed at Omisore and so many people still blame him for Bola Ige’s death.

For a man that has once been entangled in a murder case of a man who was loved by many, will he successfully win the hearts of the people of Osun and be voted in as their governor?

#OsunDecides

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