Chasing the Murderers
The haul of suspects is continuously increasing as the police intensify search for Funso Williams' murderers
By Tony Egbulefu
Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID), Annex, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos, is at the moment, the busiest police formation in the country. Noted for handling high profile criminal cases, the FCID Annex, is saddled with the onerous task of cracking the mystery of the gruesome murder of Funso Williams, a leading politician in Lagos State and front-runner in the state’s gubernatorial race on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He was cut down on Thursday, July 27.
Police sources inform that detectives of the FCID Annex have hauled in about 82 suspects, 15 of whom are from the cast of the PDP governorship aspirants in Lagos. Until last Tuesday, August 8, when Kayode Anibaba, Special Assistant to Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State on Urban Planning and Development and brother of the Minister of Works, Femi Anibaba was arrested by the FCID detectives, only 14 of the aspirants had been taken in by the police. The 14 according to the police, reported to the station after invitation to that effect was extended to them by the police investigating team. These include Adeseye Ogunlewe, former Minister for Works, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, Adedeji Doherty, Dr. Adedeji Aganga-Williams, Femmy Carrena, Tokunbo Camson, Mike Olawale-Cole, Bosede Osinowo, Princess Olateru-olagbegi, Princess Adeola Adenaike, Owolabi Salis, Enitan Owotomo, Sinatu Ojikutu, Olayinka Balogun.
What is instructive is that the police at the out set of their investigation, had issued invitation to all the 19 governorship aspirants of the PDP in the State, who had officially notified the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to report for questioning. Twelve days after the invitation only 14 of the 19 aspirants honoured the invitation, prompting the police to embark on a manhunt of the remaining five. The first fruit of the crackdown was the nicking of Anibaba last Tuesday. With his arrest, only four of the aspirants are remaining at large. Police say the finger print samples of all the suspects have been taken for analysis.
Apart from their continued interrogation at the police station, their homes have undergone intensive searches by FCID detectives, for possible clues to their culpability in the crime. Netted also by the police are Williams’ household staff-his driver, cook, two private guards, Frank Uzoegbulam, Williams’ personal assistant and the four mobile policemen incharge of his house. Even miscreants and political thugs have not been spared, particularly those from the camp of Senator Ogunlewe, who few days to Williams’ assassination, had engaged Williams’ supporters in a devastating battle in Ikorodu and Gbagada, in which Williams’ barely escaped with his life.
As the Police continue to widen their dragnet, detectives last Tuesday, August 8, rounded up additional 30 suspects in connection with the murder. Twenty of the suspects were swooped on in Ikorodu, while undergoing a physical training allegedly as employees of a private security outfit. But the cited security firm according to police sources is phantom. The 10 others, arrested same day, were picked up at different points in Lagos Island. According to the police, the 20 arrested in Ikorodu, have offered some useful insights into the Williams' murder investigation, and the police say, they are currently on the trail of their sponsors.
The police followed up a day after with an arrest of a total of 20 security guards, some of whom are in Dolphin Estate, where Williams lived and met his death, and some others in Ajah, in the outskirts of Lagos. After an appraisal of the security network in the estate, the FCID detectives opted to explore the theory that Williams' murder could not have been effected without any of the guards in the estate, either spotting the perpetrators or being complicit. The Ajah raid on its own part, yielded a guard, who was said to have been working in the estate, but coincidentally disappeared since Williams was murdered.
As the FCID, Alagbon Close, teems with human traffic, the area had since the detention of the high profile Lagos politicians, been on a high security alert, with mobile policemen and plain cloth detentives on round-the-clock surveillance. Visitors to the FCID as well as relatives of the detainees and friends, are put through hostile interrogations at the station's reception. To ensure independence of the suspects’ statements and submissions to the investigators, the police kept the suspects in different cells and permit only their screened relatives, friends and associates access to them.
So far, however, none of the suspects has owned up to the crime or let out clues that could enable the police establish that the murder was politically motivated. This, The Source gathered, does not make the police whose reading of the murder favours political assassinations, any happy. Following the police persuassion on a political killing, The Source was told that the police authorities would not be in any hurry to let the politicians out on bail, as they did to Festus Ugwu, the former director-general of the defunct National Maritime Authority (NMA) and the Authority's 11 directors, arrested by the police for interrogation over Williams’ death. Before his death, Williams was the chairman of board of directors, NMA.
But as the jigsaw continues, leader of the investigating team, Ogbonnaya Onovo, a Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG), has been on an up-to-minute debriefing on the situation by his boss, Sunday Ehindero, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP). As at last Tuesday, Onovo, The Source was told, was again in Abuja for debriefing. But despite the police strong belief that politics may have underlined the Williams’ murder, Ehindero, would not want the public to shut out other motives.
Briefing the press in Abuja last Monday, the police boss said that “people should not jump to conclusions that the killing is political. We are keeping all angles open." But more reassuring to the public, which is being increasingly let down by the police, was Ehindero's assertive position on smoking out the murderers. “But let me assure you that we are going to crack the nut in this case of Engineer Williams... we are on top of the situation and in no distant future, we will unmask the killers of Funso Williams. People should not be pessimistic all the time that we cannot solve high profile murder cases,” Ehindero said.
It is however disturbing that while the entire haul of suspects have stuck to their claim of innocence, no lead has come from the public despite Doherty’s ( a detained aspirant) one million naira offer to any member of the public for useful information that could help crack the case, and the N25 million from the Lagos PDP and N10 million from Lagos State Government.
But in what seems as their further display of grief and solidarity with other Nigerians who are sorely pained at the loss of the gentleman and grassroot politician, the detained politicians on Wednesday, organised a candle light procession within the confines of the FCID, Alagbon.
What is certain however, is that the police are not at a dead end yet. A large scale collaborative effort, including science and technology, are being brought to bear in the fishing for William’s killers. Aside detectives from the Metropolitan Police, London, who had joined the investigation, and particularly to provide forensic support to their Nigerian counterparts, an additional three from the Canadian Police few days after the murder, joined to beef up the investigating team with added foreign expertise. Ehindero says, “we have collaborative efforts. We have a Memorandum of Understanding to assist each other in getting authors of the crime.” But the Metropolitan police, he said, had strictly been limited to “forensic back-up.” The Nigeria Police, Ehindero said, lacked the technological capacity for forensic tests, hence the support from the Metropolitan Police. “I don't have effective forensic back-up,” Ehindero said. But on a positive note however, the finger prints of all the suspects could be satisfactorily analysed in the country in the updated finger print section of the Force Criminal Investigation Department.
A novel angle to the investigations is the analysis of Williams’ eyes, introduced by the Canadian detectives. Cutting edge technologies in crime busting in developed countries, are said to be capable of analysing the eyes of the deceased and reveal those he came in close contact with, within 48 hours before his death.
During investigations two weeks ago in Williams’ house, finger prints were taken from the knife, with which Williams was stabbed. Taken also, were the footprints on the footmarks of the suspected assassins. And on Saturday July 5, when the FCID detectives carried out massive searches in the residences of the suspects, a similar search on Williams' house unveiled a blood-stained cloth in his bedroom. When, all the members of the household denied ownership of the cloth, and could not as well, trace its ownership to Williams or anybody they know, the police took the blood sample in the cloth, in the belief that it may have belonged to any of Williams’ assailants. As such, it could be argued that the most potent lead the police have for now are the blood sample, the finger and footprints of Williams murderers.
Last week, The Source was told that the police are pursuing a triangular probability in the williams’ murder. It was gathered that the police are checking up Williams’ household and personal staff on a theory that Williams may have been killed by insiders, who may have discovered some huge quantum of money in his bedroom and elected to cart it away and liquidate the politician to cover their tracks. When the police searched the room of Williams’ cook, pursuant to this theory, The Source was told in the FCID that they found only N250 belonging to the young lady.
Another angle for which PDP aspirants are held, is the likelihood of a conspiracy and murder of the politician, believed to be only nine months away from the Lagos Government House by any of his co-contenders in order to take him out of the race. The third probability, is anchored on Williams' business dealings and his public and private sector associates. The Source gathered that the police are pursuing a possibility that Williams’ death, could equally have come from his business associates and those he shared mutual commercial interests with.
For this possibility, The Source gathered that several people in the private sector companies, where he was a director, are presently under arrest in FCID. The possibility of such, coming from members of the board of the NMA, it could be recalled, also led to the arrest and interrogation of Ugwu, the defunct NMA director-general and six of the board members.
Besides his position as the board chairman of NMA, Williams was a director in Julius Berger, Cappa and D'Alberto and Ajaokuta Steel Complex.
Besides the police boss, President Obasanjo, who is evidently sore pained at the assassination of Williams, has promised severally that no stone would be left unturned in fishing out the perpetrators of the crime. If not for anything, to discourage others from mindlessly engaging in such blood letting. Though the murder investigation is being undertaken by the Force Headquarters, the Lagos State police Command is also doing its own bit. At the moment, the Command is working to unravel the circumstance surrounding the failure of its men on guard at Williams' house to allow the criminals to go undetected.