<h4>24 Years After</h4>
<p><strong><a href="https://openlife.ng/">OpenLife Nigeria</a></strong> reports that 24 years after, the killers of Nigerian politician, Bola Ige who was shot dead in his home on December 23, 2001, remain officially unknown.</p>
<p>His murder at his residence in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria is a prominent unsolved political assassination linked to fierce intra-party feuds, with investigations pointing to political rivals and in some instances, drug dealers.</p>
<p>Bola Ige, a former Governor of <a href="https://openlife.ng/">Oyo State</a>, was, at the time of murder, Nigeria’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation under President Olusegun Obasanjo.<br />
On that fateful day, gunmen broke into his bedroom and shot him, in what appeared to be a planned attack.</p>
<p>There have been lot of Investigations and trials of suspects. Several people were charged and tried, but all were acquitted, leaving the case unsolved.</p>
<p>Successive governments failed to bring perpetrators to justice, leading to claims of a political cover-up and lack of political will to find the truth.</p>
<p>Despite numerous accusations, investigations, and trials, the specific individuals responsible for Bola Ige&#8217;s assassination have never been conclusively identified or convicted, making it one of Nigeria&#8217;s most notorious unsolved political murders.</p>
<p>Born James in Esa Oke, Osun State in the South Western part of Nigeria on 13 September 1930, Bola Ige’s parents were Yoruba natives of Esa-Oke town, in the old Oyo State (now in Osun State).<br />
Ige left Kaduna and headed south to the Western region at the age of 14.</p>
<p>He studied at Ibadan Grammar School (1943–48), and then at the University of Ibadan.<br />
From there, he went to the University College London, where he graduated with a law degree in 1959. He was called to the bar in London&#8217;s Inner Temple in 1961.</p>
<p>Ige established Bola Ige &; Co in 1961, and later became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.<br />
He became well known in the country for his oratory prowess, as well as his advocacy work on civil rights and democracy. Ige&#8217;s faith was Christianity.</p>
<p>Uncommonly, Ige spoke all the three major Nigerian languages, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa fluently.<br />
He wrote several books, and an anthology of articles and tributes about him was published shortly after his death.</p>
<p><strong>Early Political Career</strong></p>
<p>During the First Republic (1963–66), at the age of 31 he was at the centre of the Action Group crisis, when Chief Obafemi Awolowo was pitted against his deputy, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola.<br />
He became a rival of Olusola Olaosebikan for succession to Obafemi Awolowo.</p>
<p>Ige was a Commissioner for Agriculture in the now-defunct Western Region of Nigeria (1967–70) under the military government of General Yakubu Gowon.</p>
<p>In 1967, he became a friend of Olusegun Obasanjo, who was a commander of the army brigade in Ibadan.</p>
<p>In the early 1970s, during the first period of military rule, he devoted his time to the anti-racism campaign of the <a href="https://openlife.ng/">World Council of Churches</a>.</p>
<p>Later in his political journey, he joined the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), the successor to the Action Group. When General Olusegun Obasanjo initiated the Second Republic, he was elected as governor of Oyo State from October 1979 to October 1983.</p>
<p>Adebisi Akande, later to be governor of Osun State after it was split off from Oyo State, was his deputy governor during this period.</p>
<p>In the 1983 elections, when he ran for re-election as the UPN candidate, he was defeated by Dr. Victor Omololu Olunloyo.</p>
<p>Ige unsuccessfully challenged the election in court. However, Olunloyo lost the seat three months later to a <a href="https://www.premiumtimesng.com/">coup</a> staged by Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon.</p>
<p>Ige was detained after the coup, accused of enriching himself with party funds. He was released in 1985, after the next coup, by Ibrahim Babangida, and returned to his legal practice and to writing.</p>
<p>In 1990, he published People, Politics And Politicians of Nigeria: 1940–1979, a book that he had begun while imprisoned. He was one of the founders of the influential Yoruba pressure group, Afenifere.</p>
<p>Although critical of the military rule of General Sani Abacha, Ige avoided political difficulties during this period.</p>
<p><strong>Fourth Republic</strong></p>
<p>Following the restoration of democracy in 1999, Ige sought the nomination of the Alliance for Democracy party as a presidential candidate, but was rejected.</p>
<p>President Obasanjo appointed him as minister of Mines and Power (1999–2000).<br />
He later became Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2000–2001).</p>
<p>In September 2001, Ige said that the Federal government had initiated a program to re-arrange and consolidate the laws of the Federation, publish them in digital form, and make them available on the website of his ministry.</p>
<p>He campaigned ardently against the imposition of the Sharia law in the northern states of Nigeria.</p>
<p>In November 2001, he said that the<strong><a href="https://openlife.ng/"> Federal government</a></strong> would not allow the Sokoto State government to execute the judgement of a verdict passed by a Gwadabawa sharia court to stone a woman, Safiya Hussaini to death for committing adultery.</p>
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