SON of the late Chief Marshall Sokari Harry, Inye, yesterday told the Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation Commission that his father�s death in Abuja was masterminded by former Governor Peter Odili and former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He also named the current Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Tonye Harry (Degema), as �a third hand in the killing of my father. Obasanjo�s anger was because my father challenged his second term bid.�
Inye also mentioned a confidant of his father, Mr. Ipalibo Harry, who got a political appointment as Special Adviser to Odili on Environment, as one of those who took part in the death of Marshall Harry.
In a 12-page handwritten document presented to the commission, Inye said: �In simple language, Dr. Peter Otunaya Odili, the former governor of Rivers State, master-minded the death of my father in collaboration with Obasanjo.
�The reason for Dr. Odili�s criminal act is simple: his political boss, Dr. Marshall Harry, had by his (Odili�s) own calculation become a thorn in the flesh due to his consistent opposition to his (Odili�s) policies.�
Genesis of disagreement
�At every available opportunity, my father spoke openly and freely against Dr. Odili�s approach to governance, especially in the areas of development and security. This was Odili�s problem with my father. He felt that my father�s approach had become critically over-bearing.
�In late 2002, the quarrel between Odili and my father deepened until it got to a point where my father was locked up by the police on the instruction of the ex-governor on framed-up charges, running from disruption of public peace, defamation of character and the murder of one Monday Ndor.
�He was charged to court and later remanded in prison custody. Human rights organisations within and outside Nigeria cried foul and he was released afterwards though the charges were not dropped.
�As an obedient and law-abiding citizen, he was going to court to face these charges until his death. As a matter of fact, he was killed when the case was still on adjournment.
�Odili felt there was no need anymore for such legal journeys and opted for a short cut by spearheading the assassination of a true Rivers son whom he swore, ironically, to protect.�
Inye recalled that �on February 25, 2003, the All Nigeria People�s Party (ANPP) (which Harry had decamped to) applied to Rivers State Stadia Authority for permission to make use of the Port Harcourt Liberation Stadium for the party�s presidential rally.
�The Odili administration in an attempt to frustrate the exercise raised the fee from N800,000 paid by PDP, a fortnight earlier to N7.5 million and a security deposit of five million naira.
�My father wrote to the police on this and also warned Rivers indigenes to take preventive measures of their lives. The rally was billed for March 8, 2003, three days before the assassination.
�In the letter, my father wrote �we know that Peter Odili does not care a hoot about shedding the blood of innocent Rivers indigenes, but we do care and will not allow this blood letting to continue, that is why we are alerting you to take preventive measures.��
Obasanjo mentioned
�Marshall was also very strongly opposed to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo�s second tenure bid because of what he referred to as the former president�s high handedness. Besides, he said a second term for Obasanajo ran counter to his campaign for the number one seat to move to South-South. He passionately pitched his tent for this through his pet project CRESSOP
�Therefore, when Dr, Peter Odili mooted the idea of killing my dad and sold it to Obasanjo he gladly accepted it since that would serve his own purpose of having easy walk through Rivers State. He reasoned that the opposition in the state would be greatly weakened without my father. Immediately Odili got the nod from Obasanjo, he summoned Dr. Abiye Sekibo, the executioner-in-chief of the Odili murderous gang.
Dr. Sekibo who was the then Secretary to the State Government had control over a huge number of cultists in the state. So it was easy for him to put the boys together for the action
Planning stage for assassination
�It took about six weeks between planning, monitoring and execution. The initial plan was to kill him here in Port Harcourt, but on considering the consequences and the violence that might ensue from that the killing field was shifted to Abuja , which probably explains the delay in carrying out the plan.
�One Levy Iboroma, a renowned cultist from Bakana, confided in me that all the logistic arrangements, including the disbursement of funds were handled by Tonye Harrry.
He said one Kamaye Briggs was the one that actually shot my father when they broke into the house.
�The first bullet, according to him, hit my father on the wrist while two more bullets were shot at his stomach, which ripped open his stomach and brought out his intestines.
�He also told me that a police Prado Jeep was used to carry the killers from Port Harcourt to Abuja . That the assassins and their police accomplices left Port Harcourt at about 6 p.m. on March 4, 2003 and drove all night to Abuja .
�My father was killed in an otherwise high security area at no. 28B Karaye Close, Garki Abuja in the early hours of March 5th 2003. Around Karaye Close are the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria Printing and Minting.
But surprisingly, no security personnel showed up for close to two hours after my father was held hostage by the hired assassins. Only the Almighty God knows what happened to my father�s cell phone on the day of the incidence.
Tonye Harry mentioned
�Let me quickly mention also that Tonye Harry, the third hand in the assassination of my father was given the Assembly seat for Degema Constituency on a platter of gold, through the sole effort of Marshall Harry who was then the state party chairman of the PDP.
�Tonye as the then Deputy Speaker of the House contacted Mr. Ipalibo Harry whom he felt would be more competent to carry out the spying on my dad because of his position as personal assistant and a close confidant.
�Ipalibo Harry had an unfettered access to my father. He could walk into my dad�s bedroom even when he was naked. They had a father-son relationship. My dad in his usual style reached out to him generously, he even bought cars for him and his wife and rented an apartment for him which he also furnished.
�Another source of information which I fell morally constrained to mention here told me that the legally licensed gun (pump action), which my father always kept in the bedroom was removed more than a week before he arrived Abuja by Ipalibo Harry.”