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And Death Cometh...Read the full article.

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"Let us be warned; there is more to come, more high-profiled deaths on the plain, more assassinations, more attempts, more near misses, more mourning awaits the polity as the peripatetic nation shapes up to the epic elections of 2007."

What is the point of the above? Why must you seize the occasion of this gentleman's death to rain curses on your country? Are you trying to intimidate readers? Can't you make a distinction between Dele Giwa's murder, Alfred Rewane's murder, (Ibru's attempted murder) AND the current Williams Case? killing is killing, but to equate the present murder of Funso Williams with STATE SPONSORED ASSASINATIONS under Babangida, Abacha and Abdulsalam Military Dictatorships is PALPABLY ERRORNEOUS?

Why can't you see peaceful transition in 2007? Why are you drumming tragedy and DEATH to our ears? A beg go find somewhere siddon and allow us mourn the wicked but dastardly murder of our friend and a fine gentleman. The contribution is as unnecessary as it is unwelcome. Must you comment on every news event?

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The Hausas came and went; Nigeria remained in perpetual decay.
Yorubas are here in Nigeria to lord it to everybody as they see fit, despotically, murderously; Nigeria continues to move backward in decay.

What else is new therein? Monkeys come and go!

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Quote
Hear him now, the ascribed vanguard of law and order in the country, the IG of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, as he read from the same overworked script others before him had used when assuring Nigerians in times like this; “…the perpetrators of the heinous crime would be found.” Indeed, in the same manner those of Dele Giwa, Dikibo, etc, have been found? Short of being the lark and quip of the moment, nothing could be more representative of the ire of Nigerians than the deserved reaction of the supporters and sympathizers of the late politician who showered “pure water” on the IG and rained abuses on the police force. Of little comfort to the family of the slain politician is the palpable waste of an illustrious life without redress to this truculent bestiality. And herein lies the tragedy of a flunked nation.



Hope the IG won't somersault on his statement-------the perpetrators of the heinuous crime would be found----we heard that before-------this also happened under his watch.

Though they have good crime lab and forensic experts---the real report will be screened and buried if the usual vultures are involved.

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Eh emj Good crime lab and forensic expert ke..?

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“…the perpetrators of the heinous crime would be found.”

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You left out the "...no stone will be left unturned" bit.

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Well, what to make of this? The Nigerian Police is inviting the British Police to assist in the investigation of Funsho Williams' murder. If this is an acklowledgement that the Nigerian Police force is on its knees, that's just fine; there've been two many murders; this government showed its seriousness with security when the muderers of a serving Attorney General still walk amongst us.

P.S.: Could Funsho William's death be rightly be described as a humiliation of him? A humiliation of the rest of us, perhaps.

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Your source please on the invitation of the British police to assist with this murder. Thanks.

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The (Nigerian) Guardian carried the initial news yesterday; there's an update today: http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/news/article01, not a permanent link; full text of news item below:

Funsho Williams
London Police Arrive

Operatives Probe 'Third Force' Within PDP
BY IDOWU AJANAKU AND ALIFA DANIEL

DETECTIVES from the London Metropolitan Police arrived in the country yesterday, to join their Nigerian counterparts in unravelling Thursday's gruesome murder of Mr. Funsho Williams.

And in the company of their Nigerian hosts, they immediately swung into action by visiting the scene of the murder at Dolphin Estate in Lagos.

However, the arrival of the three detectives coincided with investigating officers of the Nigeria Police said to be narrowing their search to what they called the "third force" within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos.

The Guardian learnt that the investigators' decision to adopt the method was informed by the manner Williams, a leading PDP governorship aspirant for the 2007 elections, was killed.

This happened few hours after he reportedly left a peace meeting brokered between him and a rival governorship aspirant, Senator Adeyeye Ogunlewe.

Ogunlewe, a former Minister of Works, has been taken into police custody, as part of the investigation to unearth Williams' killers.

It was learnt that the police are working on the theory that the "third force" within the PDP in Lagos might have planned to exploit the frosty political relationship between Williams and Ogunlewe to get the deceased out in order to narrow the contest for the party's ticket.

So far, 23 aspirants are eyeing the governorship ticket of the party, with Williams considered the leading aspirants before last Thursday.

The detectives are also reportedly working on the possibility that Williams was a "typical Lagos indigene," a plank the PDP allegedly ties its governorship ticket to ahead of the 2007 elections.

In fact, Williams and Ogunlewe are the two aspirants "whose indigeneship cannot be questioned," stated a PDP stalwarts at the weekend. But with Williams' death, the equation in the party may change.

Besides, there was the belief in PDP circles that the party's chairman in Lagos (PDP), Chief Alaba Williams, had thrown his weight behind Williams' candidature.

This, it was leant, had been causing tension in the party, prompting a reported "death threat" on the party chairman.

Police sources are also drawing a semblance between Funsho Williams' case and that of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige.

Like in the Ige case, there is controversy over the whereabouts of the policemen attached to the late Williams, as at the time of the murder.

Besides, as a neighbour's home was allegedly used as the staging post to infiltrate Ige's home in Ibadan; police sources said there was suspicious that an adjourning building to Williams' Dolphin Estate home in Lagos was the landing spot for the assassins.

Said a police source: "These assassins bear striking resemblance to the fact that a neighbour's compound to Chief Ige was used to get to him (Ige), and the owners of the compound moved out of the premises immediately after the murder. So, we are not leaving anything to chance in this Williams case."

Meanwhile, President Olusegun Obasanjo has charged the police to ensure that Williams' killers are found within a short period.

He was said to have given the order when he spoke with leaders of PDP in Lagos on phone, to sympathise with them over the brutal killing of the politician.

Officials at the PDP at the headquarters in Abuja chose to keep mum on Williams' murder at the weekend. Some insisted that they would not speak on the matter until they received a "full and comprehensive briefing" from the Lagos State branch of the party.

But last night, there were indications that a delegation from Abuja might have left, to keep abreast of the situation on ground in Lagos.

Also yesterday, politicians and groups continued to condemn the murder of Williams. A member of the Board of Trustee of the PDP, Dr. Bode Olajumoke described Williams' death as a big blow to the party and indeed the people of Lagos State.

Chief Adeola Odusanya, president, the Egbe Omo Yoruba in the United States of America, called on the Federal Government to ensure that Williams' killers were found and brought to book immediately.

According to Odusanya, "the death of Williams in the hands of his killers has shown that politicians in Nigeria have not learnt any lessons from past mistakes."

Mr. Lanre Banjo, a governorship candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), in a statement sent to The Guardian from the United States, described the death as shocking, urging that "the police must ensure they dismantle 'the nest of killers' in PDP before 2007
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The coming shape of 2007
By Moses John with agency reports

Professor Wole Soyinka sure knew what he was talking about when he asserted that there was a nest of killers within the ruling PDP. He said so during an angry exchange of correspondences with the president over the cavalier manner with which his government was handling the murder case of his friend, the late Bola Ige. In fact during the funeral ceremony of Ige in Ibadan in 2002, he declared in the presence of the president that the killers of the fallen attorney general were there with them at the ceremony. Till date, the killers of the serving minister of justice are yet to be apprehended and as if eager to confirm Soyinka’s statement, all suspects have been freed and the case closed.

Nigerians have their suspicions, but that has to wait. The assassins are now freely roaming Nigerian streets incognito, probably still plying their trade, confident that they will never be caught. They are right. They will never be brought to book. Before May 29, next year, that is. People like Funso Williams who get killed this way are most probably victims of political rivals who see them as obstacles to their ambition. The man who sponsored the murder probably thinks only the murdered gubernatorial aspirant stood between him and the Lagos State government house. Former Gov. Bisi Akande of Osun State once opined that to have an idea of those who killed Bola Ige, we should simply look through the list of those who benefited from his death at the 2003 elections.

Some people within the PDP must have convinced themselves that their capture of the Lagos government house is given and whoever runs away with the PDP ticket would automatically become the next governor of Lagos State. They will not make the mistake of 2003. No matter what happens in 2007, the PDP governorship candidate will be declared the winner of the election. In the 2003 gubernatorial election they tried it, like they did other states in the south west. INEC, working together with the Obasanjo people had even gone as far as announcing on its Website that the PDP’s Funso Williams had won. Of-course he didn’t win, but like the other South West states, it was only a prelude to a planned rigged announcement by INEC. But Bola Tinubu, the AD governor had let it be known that there would be dire and grave consequences if he was rigged out. The security agents who knew his capabilities, believed him and warned Obasanjo against rigging the governor out as he had successfully done to Segun Osoba of Ogun, Bisi Akande of Osun, Lam Adesina of Oyo, Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo and Niyi Adebayo of Ekiti . That is why Tinubu is the only AD governor standing today.

But we have always known that Obasanjo has never forgiven Tinubu (or himself) for his inability to achieve a clean sweep in the south west. Nigerians know that he craves to prove to the world and himself that he is indeed the world’s greatest election rigger. His people in Lagos know that he cannot wait to prove that feat in 2007, and that whoever gets the PDP ticket among them will most likely be the next governor of Lagos state. This may not come to pass but at least that is what they believe .That is why this bloody struggle to get the ticket has begun in earnest and it will get messier as the party inches towards its primary elections. Already Lagosians are pointing fingers of suspicion at suspects and none of those fingers have so far been directed towards members of the opposition parties.

To unravel this wanton murder, the governor of Lagos state, who is the constitutional chief security officer of the state, must set up his own parallel investigation machinery. Another opportunity has opened up for Tinubu to prove to the world that he can beat the Obasanjo machinery on yet another turf. Nobody expects the security agencies, who, for all intents and purposes take instructions from Obasanjo to make any headway in this murder case, just as they have proved derelict in the other politically motivated assassinations of Bola Ige, Marshall Harry, Aminasoari Dikibo and several others. So Tinubu must beat Obasanjo again on this one and prove to the world that he is made of sterner stuff. In any case, it would be in the enlightened interest of the Lagos state governor to get to the bottom of this matter, or else, the killers will move their business to his own (Tinubu’s) camp after their principal gets his party’s ticket. I have a friend who used to say that if you see fire burning your neighbour’s house, you should quickly start pouring water on your own house; another way of saying that a stitch in time saves nine.

The prognosis for the 2007 elections is bad. Obasanjo’s conduct of the 2003 elections and the ensuing irresponsibility of the judiciary in giving a stamp of legality to the crimes committed by Obasanjo and his INEC have firmly ensured that. Ahmadu Ali, the PDP commander and Ojo Maduekwe, the protean and intellectually dishonest scribe of the party have hinted that the PDP will win even more states and more national assembly seats in 2007 and will again, win the Presidency no matter how the people feel. Nigerians have come to believe that only the Kano and Lagos formula will entrench democracy in their country and the different aspirants are developing the capability for that. I know of an aspirant in Kaduna State who intends to rent Lagos area boys and import them into Kaduna to watch over his votes during the election and I suspect there are a lot of others who are investing in good quality munitions.

I have not met any single aspirant who intends to go to court if rigged out. The next election will be a war that will be fought and finished on the field. It will be, in a manner of speaking, a war to be fought on land, air and sea and anyone who loses will have himself (or his private army) to blame. The 2007 elections threaten to make Iraq child’s play. If the INEC chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu is planning a free and fair election, then he should have no worry, but no one believes he harbours any such motive. This is not exactly his fault because anyone Obasanjo picks to do his kind of job cannot be trusted anyway. Only the hair-brained would trust a president who conducted the 2003 elections the way he did. He disenfranchised a large section of his party members because he doesn’t like their faces, and bribed National Assembly members with N50million each to illegally extend his tenure. Today, anyone associated with Obasanjo is considered a leper that every decent human being should avoid.

The worry of most Nigerians today is that if the INEC chairman is planning a free and fair election, why then should he buy a bullet proof official car for himself? Why are his commissioners desperately procuring bullet proof vests for themselves? And indeed, why is the police high command attempting to acquire armoured tanks, when it has not shown such zeal in combating assassins and armed robbers in the last seven years?

But the greatest concern came in the direction of Lt. General Owoye Azazi. His first public statement after his deserved appointment as chief of army staff was not a promise to build a world class professional army. “The Nigerian Army”, he said, “is ready for the 2007 elections”. Considering the way the Obasanjo-led government used (or misused) the army in the 2003 elections, this is indeed quite worrying!
source:http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/The%20coming%20shape%20of%202007.htm