A prime suspect in the 2001 murder of Nigerian former justice minister Bola Ige has been sworn in as a senator, witnesses said on Wednesday.
Former Osun State deputy governor Iyiola Omisore, who was in jail for the December 23 2001 murder of Ige, was granted bail on Friday by a high court in the south-eastern city of Ibadan.
Omisore won a senatorial seat while in prison, but legal experts believed he would not be allowed to take up his mandate because he was standing trial for murder, a criminal offence.
But Omisore was among 109 senators sworn in on Tuesday in the country’s capital, Abuja. The event also saw new leaders elected for the Parliament.
Witnesses said the former deputy governor of Ige’s home Osun State looked unruffled throughout the ceremony.
The new senate was inaugurated following the dissolution of the old chamber by President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday.
Omisore, who has been on trial since the beginning of the year, is among 11 suspects on trial for the minister’s assassination, the first high-profile murder since the return of Nigeria to civil rule in 1999.
The senator was a known political opponent of Ige before his brutal murder. – Sapa-AFP