31st July
By Tunde Abatan, Rotimi Durojaiye and Femi Ogbonnikan (Lagos)

President Olusegun Obasanjo dropped the hint on Sunday to justify the invitation extended to Scotland Yard detectives.

He spoke for the first time on the murder of Williams and declared that the government had to bring in detectives from London in "order to find the killers and put a stop to such dastardly acts".

The president spoke in Lagos when he went to commiserate with the mother of late aspirant, Henrietta Ibidun, at her Yaba, Lagos residence.

According to him, the federal government is desirous of getting to the bottom of the matter so as to serve as a deterrent to others who may wish to carry out such acts in future.

Obasanjo who spoke in Yoruba during the visit which lasted 30 minutes, described the late Williams as "an apostle of politics without bitterness."

He said: "To me, his death is very shocking and that is why we have brought in local and foreign experts to try to get to the bottom of the matter and fish out the killers who will themselves die like common criminals.

"Those who killed Funsho will experience sorrow for the rest of their lives, they and their families and they will never know peace," he cursed.

"If this act is allowed to go on like this without fishing out the killers, it means all those killing will not stop the act and we are thus prepared to do everything possible to catch those doing the killings with the help of national and international experts to serve as deterrent to others who may wish to do such things in future".

The five governors of the PDP in the southwest states of Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti accompanied him on the visit.

But the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) feels differently over the invitation of the London police in respect of the death of Williams, saying that the government has failed to equip the local police to live up to their responsibilities.

The group in a statement on Sunday said the high profile motivated killings in the country have not been resolved because the police are not competent to do so.

Said Osita Nwachukwu, CNPP National Publicity Secretary: "Police Force needs urgent reform, restructuring and modernization".

"Whereas, CNPP appraise the Federal Government for inviting the London Metropolitan Police to unravel those who committed the heinous murder of late Williams; we however regret that with state coffers brimming with unprecedented record income from oil revenue, the Obasanjo regime failed to train, equip, reform and modernize the Nigerian Police Force, to approximate the London Police.

"CNPP rates the invitation of London Police as the last straw that exposed the ineptitude of the Obasanjo regime and the system failure of the Nigeria Police Force. A Police Force with wage below living wage, obsolete equipment, pre-bendal recruitment, poorly motivated and poorly trained, cannot be entrusted to safeguard modern society.

"The urgency to overhaul the Police Force is to avoid in future, locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. The grave danger as highlighted by the vote of no confidence passed on the Force by the Inspector General of Police, S. Ehindero.

"Caution should be the word as we approach 2007 elections to avoid morbid scare mongering, for insecurity and political violence will scare away good people from participating in politics, thereby closing the democratic space. It will also scare foreign direct investment. A minus for a nation dependent on private sector to generate wealth and create employment.

"CNPP, consequently calls for urgent reform of the Police Force, to effectively perform its constitutional mandate. This will be a good lesson from Funsho William’s gruesome murder and a tribute to a great democrat and gentleman politician."

Meanwhile, Professor Wole Soyinka who once described the PDP as harbouring a nest of killers has declined comments over the murder.

"I have no comment. I don’t want to say anything now," was his response when reporters met him on Sunday in Lagos and sought his views on the assassination.

Soyinka was among prominent Nigerians that thronged the Dolphin Estate home of the late politician to sympathise with his family. Others included Speaker of the House of Representatives, Bello Masari; his deputy, Austin Okpara; Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili; Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, and Senator Iyiola Omisore.

Odili described the assassination as evil and called on the police to immediately unmask the killers.

Kanu stated that the killing was uncalled for. Funsho’s death, he said, has sent a wrong signal to the world about the nation’s political terrain. He too asked the police to find the assassins.

Describing it as sad, Omisore urged investigators to fish out the killers and bring them to book.

Masari expressed concern over the way the politician was murdered but implored Nigerians to be patient.

Besides, he canvassed the involvement of decent men and women in politics.

But, Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu warned that Funso’s killing will drive away decent people from the political arena. The masses, he said, will suffer the consequence.

Tinubu was at the Presidential Wing of Murtala Mohammed Airport, Lagos to receive Obasanjo.

He added that the introduction of violence will scare credible opposition.

He described the aspirant’s murder as painful and barbaric.

"Why do you kill to serve the people? You cannot and should not introduce violence because people will run away from politics. If you introduce thuggery and violence, decent, well educated people will run away from politics, then it will be left for mediocres," he said.

Politicians, Tinubu stated, become desperate to be named party flagbearers once they have the leadership assurance that votes do not count during elections.

When leaders give false assurances that they will hijack peoples’ votes, re-write election results and capture states "that is an invitation to violence".

He advised Nigerians to be aware of the dangers now lurking on the political terrain.

"All stakeholders should be conscious of the security arrangement around them. From the neighbourhood to the ordinary observer, everybody should be conscious of the movement of people around them and give information to the police."

He, however, said the police must be well equipped and motivated to make them more efficient and responsible.

Nigerians should be conscious of the welfare of the police, rather than condemn them, the governor counselled.

Describing the late Funsho as a complete gentleman and a decent politician, Tinubu said they both campaigned against each other, but noted that they never introduced violence into their campaigns.

He advised politicians to sell their programmes to the people by articulating their policies decently.

He enjoined members of the Lagos State chapter of the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD) to shelve the formal launch of the party earlier slated for Monday (today).

Politicians, he urged, must shun violence and see themselves as members of the same family.