1. Audu Abubakar
To some, the death of Audu Abubakar, the All Progressives Congress’ gubernatorial candidate in Kogi is still some sort of a dream. Quite a lot of people cannot still figure out how a man will die just at the verge of his victory; thus, making his crowd of supporters wail instead of dancing to the song of victory with him.
68-year-old Audu had thrice tried to go back to the government house in his hometown after occupying it twice. He was relentless and determined to go back to the coveted position. This made him jump in when the need came during primaries which he emerged the winner in his party.
But the inevitable came, just on the day of his victory! While some relatives claimed he was poisoned, some said he had a heart attack. May his soul rest in perfect peace!
2. Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola
The popular Yoruba aristocrat was the people’s choice in the 1993 Nigerian presidential election which was tagged inconclusive. He was the presumed winner but the election results were annulled by Ibrahim Babangida (the then military president).
When Abiola decided to take the bull by the horn by announcing himself the winner of the election in 1994, he was arrested and jailed till 1998. However, luck crawled up to his side when the then military president, General Sani Abacha died. But the luck and joyous celebration got cut short when Abiola died on July 7, 1998, the day he was supposed to be released from the prison and probably be the president of Nigeria.
The official autopsy stated that Abiola died of natural causes but Abacha’s chief security officer, Al-Mustapha said he was beaten to death. He was 61 years of age at his death.
3. Funsho Williams
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Also, called ‘the gentleman of Lagos’, Funso Williams died a very pathetic death. After losing the 2003 Lagos guber election to Bola Tinubu, he decided to try again by picking up the PDP GUBER card for year 2007. Hopes were high that the 58-year-old will finally push Tinubu out of office but sadly, he didn’t live to witness the election.
He was murdered in a gruesome way on July 27, 2006 with his body tied up, stabbed and strangled in his Ikoyi home. His campaign manager and Kingsley Adeseye Ogunlewe (who was hoping to be the PDP guber candidate) were arrested in connection to his death.
4. Yemi Tella
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Tella, a former lecturer at the National Institute for Sports in Lagos, had been diagnosed with cancer of the lungs when he led his team to a pre-World Cup eight-nation tournament in South Korea in June 2007.
A month before his death, he was awarded the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic medal – an important honour – for his achievement, by the then Nigerian president Umaru Yar’Adua. Tella spent the last two weeks of his life at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital. He died on 20 October 2007, few weeks after his team won the Under 17 World Cup game. He was 56 at his death.
5. Bola Ige
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James Ajibola Idowu Ige, SAN was a Nigerian lawyer and politician. He became Federal Minister of Justice for Nigeria. He was murdered December 23, 2001, at his Ibadan home in Oyo state. There were issues within the Alliance for Democracy party in Osun State, which he was entangled with.
Bola Ige ought to resume at the International Court of Justice before his death. Although various people were arrested and tried for involvement in the murder, including Iyiola Omisore, all were acquitted. As of November 2010 the killers had not been found. He was buried in Ibadan. In a speech at his funeral, he was quoted as saying that he was sure that Nigeria was worth living for but he was not so sure that it was worth dying for.
6. Ken Saro Wiwa
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Nigerian writer and environmental activist, Ken Saro Wiwa, was born in Bori, in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. He was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, in the Niger Delta has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s. The area suffered extreme environmental damage from decades of indiscriminate petroleum waste dumping.
Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational petroleum industry, especially the Royal Dutch Shell company. He was also an outspoken critic of the Nigerian government, which he viewed as reluctant to enforce environmental regulations on the foreign petroleum companies operating in the area.
At the peak of his non-violent campaign, he was tried by a special military tribunal for allegedly masterminding the gruesome murder of Ogoni chiefs at a pro-government meeting, and hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. His execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years.
May their souls continue to rest in perfect peace!
