REMARKS AT THE PRESENTATION OF 50 WORLD EDITORS BY MIKE AWOYINFA IN HONOUR OF THE

MEMORY OF DIMGBA IGWE BY HIS EXCELLENCY, MR BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA SAN , FORMER

GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE AT THE NIGERIAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS , KOFO

ABAYOMI STREET ,VICTORIA ISLAND ,LAGOS ON TUESDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER 2015

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, this book presentation to honour the

memory of Dimgba Igwe gives me mixed feelings.

First, I am delighted that we have not forgotten him so soon, and for that I

commend not only his immediate family but also his extended family of which

Mike Awoyinfa must uncontestably stand as patriarch.

We lost Dimgba just as I was getting to know him better. I know him for his work

and commentaries as a journalist and it was hard to ignore such a prolific writer

and consummate professional.

I met him when I accepted a proposal for him and Mike to write my Biography

which is still in the works as Mike has soldiered on without him.

To put it simply, I formed the impression from our interviews for the book, that

Dimgba was just a good man. That is what we lost; A very Good man, and no

words will ever be enough to replace the sense of loss that the Igwe family must

feel.

As delighted as I am that we gather to honour his memory, I am saddened that we

have not done our duty to Dimgba.

Yes Dimgba is gone, we cannot bring him back, but we owe ourselves and him a

duty to find out how and why he died.

Yes we know he was knocked down by a motorist, but was it an accident or was

he deliberately run over?

We must find out.

During my tenure as Governor, this was a case file I directed should not be closed

at our monthly security meetings.

A car that knocks a person down will leave some evidence, a dent, a broken part,

some paint work and some other clues.

I directed the Police then to go round every mechanic in the neighbourhood at

the time to see if anybody recently came to do bodywork repair to his or her car

in the hope that the car involved belonged to somebody in the community.

Regrettably nothing turned up.

We sent out people to see if in the commotion and possible distraction that

followed the incident, somebody had the presence of mind to take the

registration number of the vehicle but nothing has turned up

The duty we owe Dimgba is to keep probing in the hope that somebody saw

something. This is how crimes are solved.

Today, I use this platform to please urge anybody who may have seen something

on that day to please say something. It might be useful to the police.

The duty we owe Dimgba is to ensure that all of us affix our vehicle registration

plates to our cars and that nobody is permitted to drive an unregistered or

unlicensed vehicle in any part of our country.

If we refuse to do this, we simply help people to remain anonymous and make

investigation difficult for law enforcement.

I think I should mention that during my tenure of service we enunciated a policy

of temporary vehicle registration for vehicles just being cleared from the ports

before full registration as is being done in other countries.

The duty we owe Dimgba is to be more vigilant and observant about

developments around us.

I believe that if we were, we would have seen something, a car description, a

colour, a license number or some other clue.

That help investigators solve difficult cases

The duty we owe Dimgba is to solve the mystery of his death by finding the driver

of the car.

Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN