By Richard Akinnola
I can understand the denial of General Ibrahim Babangida of his innocence over the murder of Dele Giwa. It is expected. Have you seen an armed robbery suspect charged to court pleading guilty in court? It’s a matter of self-preservation. Even Major Gideon Orkar, who announced on radio the ouster of Babangida 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, in doing that, he doesn’t have that latitude of revisionism by deliberately misrepresenting facts. I make reference to two of such.
In his book, General Ibrahim Babangida 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 of the seven Justices, upheld the appeal of Gani Fawehinmi, 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 for an order of Mandamus to compel the State’s DPP to either prosecute the two security chiefs or he be given 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), do 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 do endorse a certificate to the effect on the information submitted to him by the applicant on Monday, the 3rd November, 1986. This order of the court shall be carried out on or before Monday 25th day of January, 1988”.
Pursuant to this order, Gani Fawehinmi sent a letter to the DPP, accompanied it with the court’s ruling.
Based on this, the Solicitor-General wrote to Gani Fawehinmi that the State was ready to prosecute the suspects.(See annexures 1&2).
On the basis of this, 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 to 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. “l 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, l 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:
Invitation was extended to Babangida by the Oputa panel, he shunned it. He was wrong to state that the police and lawyers didn’t come up with a new thing at the Oputa panel.
At the Oputa panel, Abubakar Tsav, Commissioner of police (rtd) gave evidence on oath that he was assigned to investigate the case and at the end of his investigation, his findings pointed to the Babangida government. and that he submitted his findings to DIG Chris Omeben.
Also, contrary to what IBB said in his book that no fresh evidence came up, the issue of Gloria Okon came up during the hearing.
Having said these, it’s either those who wrote the book for him didn’t get their facts right or that General Babangida was being mischievous in what he wrote in the book regarding the murder of Dele Giwa.
It is even deceitful to be referring to Dele as your good friend. From where to where? If you could execute your childhood friend, Mamman Vatsa, who then is Dele Giwa, who you only met in the course of his official duties as a journalist? Dele Giwa was not your friend, General.