Date: 2004-10-21

At age 12, little Jumoke Agboola has been denied the love and affection of a father by bandits. Besides the psychological torture of watching her father killed, Jumoke is nursing bruises from gun-butts freely used on her by the hoodlums.

But yesterday, at 2, Ibelo Street, Agbabiaka, a suburb of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, Jumoke ignored her pains and with the rest members of the family began the quest to bring their father's killers to book.

Until his assassination last week, Agboola was a senior servant with the Kwara State government. He was also the accountant of the State Primary Education Board (SPEB), which is being probed by the Bukola Saraki administration. He appeared before the panel looking into the accounts of the board and testified.

His family's cry for justice may have received the ears of Governor Saraki, who pledged yesterday that Agboola's killers would be unmasked.

Jumoke, who is the spokesperson of the family, said: "We call on the executive governor of this state to put adequate security measure in place to protect law-abiding citizens against the men of the underworld.

"At the same time, we want security operatives to identify the killers of our father and bring them to book. Besides, every civil servant that has occupational hazard attached to the nature of their assignment like our deceased father must be given adequate security demand of their job, to forestall future occurrence of such unwarranted murder", she said.

At the emotion-laden press briefing where three other children of the late accountant and his widow were present, Jumoke said the death of her father had created a vacuum that would be too difficult to fill.

The late Agboola, principal witness in the on-going investigation into the activities of the defunct Ministry of Special Duties, was murdered last Friday in his private residence.

The daughter narrated the story thus: "A gang of seven men, four masked and three unmasked came into the house while we were all inside and ordered everybody to lie down and brought my daddy out of his bedroom.

"My daddy asked them what they wanted but they had been paid to take his life and were not ready to listen to him. He was asked to lie down and never allowed to say anything. Again, my mum was pleading with them but they did not listen to her.

"While everybody was lying down, they went inside my dad's room to take his Laptop computer, searched inside the drawer and every angle of the room. Documents on his table were scattered and the amount of what was taken away could not be ascertained. They were kept by the deceased," she added.

The girl, who said the assassins could speak fluently all major Nigerian languages, narrated how the killers, all in their early 20s had collected the late Agboola's handset and that of her elder sister and switched them off.

She said: "We were all locked up in the store room attached to the kitchen. After the killing, they went away. By the time we forced the door open, we met our daddy in the pool of his blood. We immediately took the remains to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and reported to the police".

Jumoke prayed for the repose of the soul of her late father and against the recurrence of such ugly incident in the state.

Saraki said the gruesome murder of the accountant could not be divorced from his role before a judicial panel of inquiry constituted by the state government to probe the activities of the defunct ministry.

Saraki, at a press briefing yesterday at the Government House, Ilorin, however promised to use the state machinery to find the assassins.

The governor, who said the police were yet to arrest anyone over the death, promised prompt provision of adequate security for both compellable witnesses and others that would appear before the panel.

According to him: "Everything we have heard including accounts from the children of the deceased, who watched as their father was being murdered, point to one clear conclusion: "That there is a direct connection between the role Mr. Agboola played as a major witness in the probe of activities of SPEB during the last administration and his gruesome murder."
He revealed that the state government had contacted the police headquarters in Abuja and the Presidency towards prompt arrest of the killers.

Saraki deplored what he described as the re-enactment of "the frightening memory of those dark, violent past" in the state, promising a conducive atmosphere that would attract investors.

"Some people are determined to scare people away either from giving further evidence at the panel or in the prosecution that would follow by creating an atmosphere of fear and terror.

"We remain convinced that the probes and inquiries that we have instituted either into the activities of the SPEB, the Local Government or the Ministry of Special Duties are in the best interest of Kwara State. If nothing else, we need to show that people who use public office for private gains can be made to account," he said.