'ADESANYA, IGE, SHINNING EXAMPLES OF HONESTY'

The late Afenifere leader, Senator Abraham Adesanya and his deceased deputy, Chief Bola Ige, have been described as 'shinning examples of honesty with unassailable integrity.' This assertion was contained in a statement signed by members of the Political Committee of the Pan-Yoruba organisation, worked closely and actively with the late Pa Adesanya.

The signatories to the statement were, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, Mr Akinyemi Onigbinde, Funminiyi Afuye and Yinka Odumakin, who said that Adesanya led 'an uncommon life of discipline, self-denial and accountability.' It was against this background that they believed it would amount to sinful silence not to raise their voices 'in a season of moral crisis where a murder accused is taking advantage of the national fickleness of the minds to rake mud against the memory of the late Adesanya and his deputy, Chief Ige; to muddle their role in the murder of Amazon Kudirat Abiola.'

The statement, according to them, was necessary to debunk the celebrated allegation that Adesanya and Ige were induced by General Abubakar Abdulsalami administration to truncate the June 12, 1993 struggle epitomised by MKO Abiola's mandate. The two-page statement read in part: 'We have watched with trepidation the tragedy of a nation with fallen ethos slipping into hysteria over the cheap innuendoes and courtroom fables from Major Al Mustapha as he opened his 'defence' in the murder charges levelled against him over the callous murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola on the streets of Lagos on June 4,1996.

'Al-Mustapha started his tales in the courtroom by lying that he had video tapes of Yoruba leaders led by Adesanya and Ige being induced to sabotage the June 12 struggle and sacrifice Abiola in the course of their visit to General Abdusalami who became Head of State after the death of Abacha.It was, however, an anti-climax when the video he tendered was the footage of NTA report Nigerians watched in 1998 when Adesanya led a NADECO delegation to Aso Rock.

'The serial liar was to crack under cross-examination, claiming that he had no evidence that the leaders of NADECO who visited the Villa were induced. We were never in doubt from day one that Al-Mustapha was out to play the mind game by maligning these departed leaders who are no longer in a position to speak in the land of the living. It is not an accident that he never mentioned any of their living colleagues who were at the meeting with them.

'It is (therefore) our position that the country must be wary at this point not to allow an accused criminal in the dock to play on its intelligence by denying all the evils he coordinated as the Chief Security Officer to Abacha and witnessing to only events that happened while he can no longer be held accountable.

'We are (also) of the firm conviction that Nigerians still have to inquire into the events of June and July 1998 for posterity but the matter at Igbosere High Court is the murder of Kudirat.

'We must (further) at this point express our worry and bewilderment over how the murderous events of 1994-1998 can so easily move into a distant echo and a video show from Al-Mustapha perfidy cinema now gripping the national space.'