As I am wont to say, my task in writing is to do at least three of six things: to inform, to teach, to provoke, to amuse, to express my point-of-view - and to learn following inquiry. So all week, I have been trying to piece together the implications of Fr(a)yo’s interview, asking questions here and there, making and receiving local and international calls here and there, doing my usual thing of being a part-time reporter-activist-commentator living in the Diaspora.
So here is the deal: Honorable Odunayo Olagbaju of Osun State is dead and now buried. Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney-General James Idowu Ajibola Ige is dead and now buried, each assassinated in cold blood within eight days of each other December 15 and 23 respectively. Some bodies killed them, and although they know themselves, and some people know them, and God knows them, we the masses do not exactly know the perpetrators.
Nevertheless, we have our suspicions, at least one possible set. In Osun State, a contest of political will has been going on, with Governor Bisi Akande on the one hand, and Deputy Governor Otunba Michael Iyiola Omisore on the other hand. Ige was a supporter of Akande, and Olagbaju a supporter of Omisore. Thus the supported are alive, but the supporters are dead.
Fryo
Dateline: Monday, January 14, 2002. Enter Fryo and Keyamo at a press conference in Lagos.
Mr. Joseph Olugbenga Damola Elubode Adebayo, a.ka. "Fryo" (or is it "Frayo?"): supporter and emissary of Olagbaju, Physical Education student at my alma mater (University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University) despite official denials, erstwhile AD publicity secretary in Iremo (Ward 1), most recently organizing secretary of PDP (Iremo (Ward 1)). Christian brother suddenly turned white-long-robed Bar-beach "Cele", he is half-brother of teenager (and Muslim) Shehu.
Fryo’s ears have heard what they should they should not hear, and his eyes have seen what they should not see, and he has been singing like a canary.
The turn of events scares even the hardened Fryo, and he knows that his life is "fried" if he does not do something quick! Should he get out of the country? No money to do that: his primary benefactor Olagbaju is dead, and he dare not return to his secondary benefactor Omisore! Where would he go anyway? And if the police get to him first - or maybe his former friends - he is dead-meat. After all, in Nigeria, as a prime-suspect, you are guilty until proven innocent. In that unfortunate eventuality, after serious torture, Fryo’s inevitable attempt to escape arrest will lead to his been "travelled" - that is being extra-judicially killed by the Police.
Fryo obviously loves to LIVE - this is no suicidal bloke - or at least he wishes to be remembered to have lived! If he dies or is killed in custody tomorrow, who will not remember the tough-guy name "Fryo?" Even I again might be moved to ask in English nursery rhyme: "Who killed Cock Robin?"
Lagos lawyer and "father Confessor" Festus Keyamo: enfant terrible, most recently tormentor of Senator Tokunboh Afikuyomi, until he himself (Keyamo) was tormented. Yes the intrepid Keyamo - who lends his ears to hear from Fryo what ears have not heard, and to write down what hands have not written until now.
And what a confession of sorts, encapsulated as follows: "I did not murder, but I was asked to do so by so, so, so and so!" These are yet allegations, but Fryo’s statements have a ring of truth of a death-bed confession for this writer, this armchair Sherlock Holmes.
To make matters worse, Omisore denies ever meeting Fryo before!
Sure! Who is kidding who? I may have been born at night, but not last night. Omisore’s denial is the first standard mistake of a suspicious person who denies knowledge of another suspect who knows his bedroom intimately - and says so convincingly.
The Abuja Connection
Let us ignore the protagonists for the moment - Akande and the "so, so, so and so" Omisore. Every living brother and his mother is implicated SOMEHOW by Fryo - from the common street thug of Ile-Ife and Osogbo, to the Ooni of Ife, Olubushe II himself, to the Speaker of Osun State, to SSS Director in Abuja, and - wait for this - to Vice-President Atiku (whose emissary Omisore is alleged to be) and to the "Oga-Patapapa" President Obasanjo himself.
Yes - Abuja. Abuja. Aso Rock. The seat of intrigue, a strong-hold of sorts.
As the Yoruba will say, "Aa nmu eye bo la’po, e nbere pe kini awo re" - Please be patient while the game bird is being withdrawn from the hunting bag, for you know not what might confront you!
If the allegations are true, however, then now I am confused, very confused. Atiku is a friend of Obasanjo, who is a friend of Ige, who is a friend of Akande, who is an enemy of Omisore, who is a friend of Atiku who is a friend of Obasanjo. The Ooni, a friend of Obasanjo who is a friend of Ige who is a friend of Akande who is an enemy of the Ooni who is a friend of Omisore.
The Olubushe who gives an honorary Oranmiyan chieftaincy to Obasanjo’s wife Stella in the absence of Akande but in the presence of Ige and Omisore and on a day Ige’s "fila" (cap) was "si’id" (removed) by Kola Omisore (DG Omisore’s brother) and thrown exuberantly up to hang on a tree by Fryo himself. The Ige who is a friend of Akande against who Olubushe had been quite angry for not giving Omisore and himself certain contracts/monies in the stat. Furthermore in a case of cultural disrespect, Akande had earlier one received the similarly-named "Oranmiyan" chieftaincy title from Ijebu-Ife in Ogun State against the Ooni’s express wishes, claiming (the Ooni) to be the ONLY custodian of Oranmiyan chieftaincy titles in Yorubaland!
And Ige is dead.
Yes, the Ooni, Vice-President Atiku and President Obasanjo have an explanation of their relationship with Deputy Governor Omisore and the unfolding PDP power play in Osun State and the South-West to make. When in a previous piece we wrote earlier that this Ige affair was not simply Osun State politics, or even merely Yoruba/AFenifere politics, but national politics and "contractocracy" on a grand scale played on Osun/Yoruba turf, we were not kidding. If Atiku can indeed be involved in mere Student Politics, and Omisore can proceed to Washington DC on a World-Bank mission (at whose behest, we might ask?), who else up there might have sent him to do other things more dastardly?
What a mess! Some things do not just compute, and a lot of people, both remote and immediate causers of the Ige/Olagbaju tragedies, have a lot of explanation to do in this Election Year.
No wonder that Professor Wole Soyinka says inter-alia:
"The murderers are among us. Let no one be in any doubt - they sit among us, right within this sombre gathering that honours the passage of a hero. There are the unwitting collaborators whose blind politics brought this moment to be, whose primitive notions of contestation offered up this land of sacrificial platter. Perhaps they are contrite. Perhaps now, they realise that they have been mere tools in the hands of their diabolically far-sighted, deeply calculating partners."
I ask: Is Soyinka also a prophet?
Section 308 Again
And what is the law to do?
My goodness, our Constitution, what a Constitution! Section 308: The President and Vice-President have immunity from criminal and civil proceedings. Ditto for Governor and Deputy-Governor. Thank God the Ooni and the Speaker of the House do not have immunity - not to imply that they should be indited.
One more twist: since the Speaker of the Osun House is somehow involved in all of this mess, how will the Assembly assemble even to begin to IMPEACH the Governor and Deputy-Governor in order to strip them of immunity? Will the Speaker not have to be impeached first? Who will impeach the impeacher? Since the President and Vice-President are involved, who will declare the state of emergency in Osun State? Since the Governor is involved, who will invite the President to declare a state of emergency?
Too many questions, too few answers.
"Who Will Bell The Cat?"
Where all of this will end, only God knows. One thing I know: unclean hands rule our land, and God is exposing them all one by one using the fraudulent Electoral Law, Ige’s death, etc., all the works. Nevertheless, He, God that is, will not come down to make the changes for us: that is up to us to do.
One story has it that once upon a time, there was an English King who aroused the jealousy of several noblemen by bestowing titles upon favourite architects. When the unhappy nobles met and discussed how to get rid of the King's favourites they used the euphemism "who will bell the cat?" Actually, it appears that the more well-known story of the origin of the loaded question is from an old fable retold in William "Long Will" Langland's (c. 1332-c. 1400) unrhymed alliterative poem entitled "The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman," which was written, as far as is known, between 1360 and 1399. . It tells of a family of mice who hold a meeting to decide what to do about a cat who has been preventing them from foraging for food. One cunning mouse suggests that a brass bell be hung around the cat's neck so that they could be warned of its approach. Everyone agrees that this ploy is perfect, except for one sage mouse, who steps forward and says, "Excellent idea, but who will bell the cat?" It is regarded as the greatest Middle English poem prior to Chaucer ("Canterbury Tales"), and has been favorably compared to Dante’s "Divine Comedy". It is both a social satire and a vision of the simple Christian lifeIt means taking on a dangerous mission, risking confrontation at great personal risk for the benefit of others, for the common good
So, in this unfolding saga of the Ige/Olagbaju assasinations, it is no longer just "Who killed Cock Robin?" as I previously asked, but "Who will Bell the Cat?" Maybe it is Festus Keyamo - or even "Fryo" Adebayo?
Epilogue
I cannot end without my own preliminary verdicts:
Fryo is telling the truth about his relationship to Omisore. His interview and affidavit are cogent, comprehensive and compelling. The one puzzle: how did he get to become Uncle Bola’s "neighbor" in Bodija? Or what was that story all about?
Keyamo had better watch his back.
Omisore is telling a pack of lies about his non-relationship to Fryo. We will see how he will wangle that issue of not having met Fryo before EVER! In "small" Ile-Ife "kekere yen?"
Ooni, Atiku and Obasanjo have cases to answer about their business and political relations to Omisore. What did they know and when did they know it?
Akande is clean. Reading my political tea-leaves, I find that this reluctant Osun governor and Ige-protégé has been the victim of vicious calumny because as Governor of a poor state, he has resisted the attempts of the powers-that-be to plunder his state financially and take it over politically.
I am no closer to who actually killed Ige, but the list of suspects is lengthening.
The public will probably NEVER know who the killers of Ige (December 23, 2001) are, just as Layi Balogun’s killers (killed December 7, 2000), Kudirat’s killers (June 4, 1996) and Rewane (October 6, 1995) etc. have never been made known. That does not mean that their killers were never found by the Police. If they were, they most likely have been disposed of quietly. If they have not been found, that is because they have stayed one step beyond the law, courtesy of inside police information. With respect to Ige, if the direction firmly points "North-Arewa-wards", it is most likely that Obasanjo himself will be the one to plead caution for "the sake of the nation and our nascent democracy."
Those are my claims, and I am sticking with them.
Stay tuned.
Bang! Court closed for now.
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