Richard Akinnola
I can understand General Ibrahim Babangida’s (retd.) denial of involvement in the murder of Dele Giwa. It’s expected—have you ever seen an armed robbery suspect plead guilty in court? It’s a matter of self-preservation. Even Major Gideon Orkar, who announced Babangida’s ouster in the abortive coup of April 22, 1990, pleaded not guilty before the military tribunal.
So, Babangida’s denial of his government’s involvement in the murder is understandable. However, he doesn’t have the latitude to deliberately misrepresent facts. I reference two such instances. In his book, General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) made two major false assertions regarding the letter bomb murder of Dele Giwa, founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch. It’s either those who wrote the book for him didn’t have the facts or that IBB was just being mischievous.
He said: “…the Supreme Court’s suggestion that the Newswatch lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, could take on the case as a private prosecutor did not receive a positive response.”
My response: On Friday, December 18, 1987, the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by the seven Justices, upheld Gani Fawehinmi’s appeal that he had the right to privately prosecute the two Security Chiefs of Babangida he accused of being behind the murder of Dele Giwa. Pursuant to that judgment, Gani Fawehinmi filed an application at the Lagos High Court, seeking an order of Mandamus to compel the State’s DPP to either prosecute the two security chiefs or give him the fiat to do so.
The matter was assigned to Justice Olusola Thomas, who, on Thursday, January 21, 1988, made the following order:
“I hereby order that Mr. J.A. Oduneye, the former Director of Public Prosecutions (now Solicitor-General of Lagos State), exercise his discretion whether or not to prosecute Col. Halilu Akilu and Lt-Col. A.K. Togun for the murder of late Dele Giwa and, if he declines to prosecute, that he endorse a certificate to that effect on the information submitted to him by the applicant on Monday, November 3, 1986. This order of the court shall be carried out on or before Monday, January 25, 1988.”
Pursuant to this order, Gani Fawehinmi sent a letter to the DPP, accompanied by the court’s ruling. Based on this, the Solicitor-General wrote to Gani Fawehinmi, stating that the State was ready to prosecute the suspects. On this basis, the murder information was filed and it came before Justice Eniola Longe, in the case of The State v. Col. Halilu Akilu and Lt. Col. Kunle Togun (Charge no. ID/4c/88). The prosecutor was Mrs. Eniola Fadayomi, the Attorney-General of Lagos, while Chief Rotimi Williams, SAN, was counsel for the accused persons, who were not in court.
Williams raised a preliminary objection to the trial, which was agreed with by the prosecutor. Subsequently, the charges were quashed and the accused persons freed. At the end of the whole saga, there were 38 cases. Gani Fawehinmi said if he had been granted the fiat to privately prosecute, he would have loved to put Babangida in the witness box.
“I have 420 questions for Babangida. Let him stand in the witness box and answer those questions. Then, we will all know who killed Dele Giwa. I think God wants to establish a principle through the death of Dele Giwa. They killed the wrong person and they are targeting the wrong lawyer.”
Still on Dele Giwa, General Babangida said in his book: “When the Obasanjo civilian administration reopened the Giwa case at the Oputa panel on Human and Civil Rights, I expected that the police and lawyers would come forward with new evidence as to their findings on the Giwa murder over the years. Nothing of such happened.”
My response: An invitation was extended to Babangida by the Oputa panel, but he shunned it. He was wrong to state that the police and lawyers didn’t come up with anything new at the Oputa panel.
At the Oputa panel, retired Commissioner of Police Abubakar Tsav gave evidence on oath, stating that his investigation pointed to the Babangida government and that he submitted his findings to DIG Chris Omeben. Contrary to what IBB said in his book, new evidence did come up during the hearing, including the issue of Gloria Okon.
Having said this, it’s either those who wrote the book for him didn’t get their facts right or General Babangida was being mischievous regarding the murder of Dele Giwa. It is even deceitful to refer to Dele as your good friend. From where to where? If you could execute your childhood friend, Mamman Vatsa, who then was Dele Giwa? Dele Giwa was not your friend, General.
Akinnola, a lawyer and journalist, lives in Lagos.
