How Omisore Arraigned For Murder, Arrested For N1.3Billion Alleged Corruption Became Ruling APC’s National Secretary
Iyiola Omisore, the newly elected national secretary of the All Progressives Congress has once been accused of murdering a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Bola Ige.
Ige died on December 23, 2001, following his assassination by yet-to-be-identified killers in his residence in Ibadan, Oyo State. The gruesome murder also led to the sudden death of Atinuke, his wife; and destabilised his family.
Bola Ige’s assassination was believed to have started with an altercation that happened at the palace of Ooni of Ife, Oba Sijuwade Okunade during the conferment of chieftaincy title on some individuals. Ige was mobbed by an angry crowd as they stripped him of his necklace, cap and destroyed his glasses.
The group was led by a certain ‘Fryo’, a known political thug loyal and devoted to Omisore. It was an obvious breach of his security and attempt to eliminate him openly. A day after the assault, Omisore granted an abusive interview to Tempo magazine that was published the following week.
In the interview, he said “…Bola Ige came on (the) radio here to insult me and my family. That is his last one. He was beaten yesterday; the people of Ife beat him up and he was crying like a baby as they removed his cap and his glasses.”
A week after the attack on Bola Ige at Ooni’s palace, he was killed in his home in Ibadan. Omisore alongside others were arrested and arraigned before an Oyo State High Court as the suspected killers of the former Attorney General of the Federation but were later released for lack of evidence.
Speaking on the character of Omisore, his then principal, Bisi Akande said, “He crept into my life like a silent malignant cancer. He came in full force. In a few months, I thought I knew him. I regret I did not know him in his true colours”.
“When I nominated him as my running mate, I had banked on him that he would be my successor and that I only needed to groom him properly for the daunting task of governance. As I was mentored by Chief Ige, I thought I had a duty to also mentor Omisore.
“I had planned to spend only one term in office and I believed that, with four years of proper exposure and mentorship, he would be ready. But Omisore was ready right from the start for something less noble. By the time we came to the government, all the pretences were off. I knew I was dealing with a wolf in wolf’s clothing. I was alarmed by his way of spending money,” Akande revealed.
Senator Omisore and some of his political associates including the former Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Jelili Adesiyan, were the main suspects in the case of the dastardly killing of Ige.
He was arrested and prosecuted in Ibadan before the High court which eventually discharged and acquitted him and other suspects.
Also in 2016, Omisore was arrested by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) for N1.3 billion he allegedly received from the Office of the National Security Adviser.
However, the former Osun deputy governor emerged as the National Secretary of the APC unopposed after Prof. Abideen Olaiya from Oyo State stepped down.
Ife Oyedele and Adebayo Shittu, a former Minister of Communications, had earlier stepped down for Omisore.
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