The reopening of legendary American rapper, Tupac Shakur’s murder case, 30 years after his killing, offers a lesson for Nigeria, where a long list of high-profile and ordinary murder cases remain unresolved, Davidson Iriekpen writes
The news last week that a former gang leader, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, went on trial in Las Vegas, nearly 30 years after the 1996 murder of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur, has again brought to the fore the failure of the Nigerian government to resolve several murder cases in the country.
Shakur, 25, was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting on September 7, 1996, after attending a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas. He died six days later. No one was charged until Davis was arrested in 2023.
Though Davis, a former leader of the South Side Compton Crips gang, has pleaded not guilty, prosecutors allege that he was involved in the events surrounding the shooting. If convicted, the 63-year-old faces life imprisonment without parole.
The killing of Shakur, also known as 2Pac, is one of America’s most celebrated murder cases, prompting endless debate among music fans over who did it and why. The rapper was a key figure in a hip-hop rivalry pitting the East Coast against the West Coast.
Shakur’s death, at the height of his career, had fuelled decades of speculation and conspiracy theories. The rapper, whose music explored racism, poverty, violence and social inequality, became a cultural icon whose influence continued to shape hip-hop. His highly publicised rivalry with fellow rapper, The Notorious B.I.G., and the wider East Coast-West Coast hip-hop conflict made him one of the most closely watched artists of the 1990s.
The Las Vegas trial is therefore expected to attract significant attention as prosecutors attempt to establish what happened on the night Shakur was fatally shot and what role, if any, Davis played in the killing.
Though many believe that the proceedings, expected to last a month, will likely not make clear who fired the shots that killed the hip-hop legend, prosecutors aim to show that the defendant ordered the killing and provided the gun used to kill Shakur in a drive-by shooting.
Davis’ trial has again highlighted the contrast between the US and Nigeria, where murder cases can remain unresolved, leaving families and communities to live with grief, uncertainty and the lingering question of whether justice will ever be served.
Several Nigerians have been killed, and the killers have yet to be found till date. Weak investigative capacity, lack of forensic evidence, and political interference often stall cold cases, leaving families without closure.
For instance, a sitting Attorney of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige, was shot dead in his Bodija, Ibadan home at 9p.m. on December 23, 2001, soon after he arrived in Ibadan from Lagos.
The same horrible fate befell Aminosari Dikibo, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Vice-Chairman in February 2004.
There were other puzzling assassinations, including that of Marshall Harry, the National Vice-Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign coordinator in 2003. He was brutally murdered before the 2003 presidential election.
In 2002, Barnabas Igwe, chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (Onitsha branch), and his wife, Abigail, were victims of rampant killings. Ironically, the alleged killer is currently working for the Anambra State government.
Also unresolved was the July 2006 assassination of Funsho Williams, a PDP governorship aspirant in Lagos State. He was found bound, strangled and stabbed at his home in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. The shoddy way security agencies muddled up the investigations and trials baffled everyone. Though the police arraigned some suspects before the court, Justice Adeniyi Adebajo of the Lagos High Court freed the suspects for lack of evidence by the prosecution.
The list is endless. On May 4, 2012, Nigerians woke up to the chilling news of the assassination of Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde, the Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. Unknown gunmen had invaded the Government Reservation Area (GRA) home of the Osun State-born political aide, bound the security men on duty, broke into the main building and shot the man to death.
Shortly before Oyerinde was killed in Benin City, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) gubernatorial aspirant for Ogun State, Dipo Dina, was also murdered.
Besides these famous politicians, there were other remarkable Nigerians, particularly prominent journalists who had been victims of assassins and their deaths remain unsolved. Examples include Newswatch magazine co-founder, Dele Giwa, who was murdered in his study in Ikeja, Lagos in 1986; Bagauda Kaltho, an activist journalist who was killed in a Kaduna hotel in the wake of the June 12 crisis in 1993; Mr. Godwin Agbroko, Chairman of the THISDAY Editorial Board; Abayomi Ogundeji, who was a member of THISDAY Editorial Board and the Assistant News Editor of The Guardian, Bayo Ohu, among others.
Till date, no one has told Nigerians about the killers of Alfred Rewane, an elder statesman who was killed during the struggle for the actualisation of the June 12, 1993 election result under the military government.
Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, wife of the acclaimed winner of the historic June 12, 1993 election, was also murdered in broad daylight in Lagos during the same epic struggle. Though Major Hamza Mustapha (rtd), the former Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, was convicted by a Lagos High Court over the murder, he was acquitted by the Court of Appeal.
Months after a Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, retired from service, he was killed by unidentified gunmen along the Abuja-Keffi Expressway. Till date, doubts persist over whether the real perpetrators have been found.
Although the police arrested suspects who reportedly confessed to the killing, questions remain. Badeh was shot dead on December 18, 2018, while returning from his farm. He was the only one of three occupants killed, fuelling speculation that the attack may have been an assassination rather than a robbery.
The inconclusive nature of many murder investigations and prosecutions has become a troubling feature of Nigeria’s justice system. Investigations and cases are abandoned, evidence grows cold, and public attention fades until a fresh government directive revives them.
This is a serious indictment of the police and raises questions about the effectiveness of the country’s justice administration system.
In 2016, then President Muhammadu Buhari directed a former Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to reopen well-known cases of alleged murders and assassinations that the same police authorities abandoned at the investigation or prosecution stages.
While this elicited a glimmer of hope for the families that lost their beloved ones, nothing concrete and reasonable came out of the directive.
When crimes, particularly murders, are thoroughly investigated and prosecuted, it actually shows the value leaders attach to the lives of their citizens. This should be a clarion call for all stakeholders to prevail on government and security agencies to recommit themselves to attaching more value to the lives of Nigerians if the nation must be truly seen as the giant of Africa.