It has been 14 years now when a terrible dark cloud fell upon the Lagosian entity and upon all lovers of freedom. It was really a very sad day on that horrific July 27, 2006 as the blood soaked body of Engineer Funsho Williams was discovered in his Dolphin residence in Ikoyi.
Funsho Williams, the famous Ọmọluabi Eko had been murdered in gruesome circumstances. He was tied, gagged and stabbed by some evil assassins apparently paid to stop his gubernatorial ambition. He was only 58 years old when he was taken away from us by cowardly men who reposed in dark, brutish villainy.
With the murder of Funsho Williams, who stood at the threshold of triumphing at the general election, a great dream was shattered. The hopes of millions of Lagosians who were hearkening to be rescued from what was then building up as a gradual servitude of the Lagosian natives, was dashed.
We mourn this great Lagosian with a deep, aching wound. For Funsho Williams was our bright, shining star, a symbol of truth and redemptive thoroughness , our liberative metaphor from the vicious grip of the wandering usurpers.
Funsho was in heart and soul a gentleman of the first order. He was a man of class and nobility; a taciturn original Lagosian whose significant attainments were well woven around his meritorious academic and professional leadership.
He was a mover of men and mountains whose visionary sweep was far beyond selfish political advantages. He led a superable movement that roused all hearts and souls in Lagos in passionate embrace.
He was a gentle giant with few words, without hate, without malice; stripped of animosity, but strong in purpose, genuine in vision, gallant in spirit, reposed in full selfless candor that is rare in politics.
The Ọmọluabi Eko came to serve. He came to heal the broken places. He came to salvage the ruined house of locusts that the usurpers had turned Lagos into. But this wonderful mission was abrupted by evil men.
Those who killed Funsho Williams might have killed a man. But not his dream of rescuing and salvaging our society. We continue where he stopped.
On this mournful occasion when the wounds are still fresh, we urge those who use Funsho Williams’ name to push patently untidy, undignified, alleged palliatives agenda to desist forthwith. This demeans what Funsho Williams represented. It is a mockery of a great dream and a great man. It is self-serving and hideous.
We cry out for justice now. We cry out that the long reaches of the law should be animated to fish out those who murdered Funsho Williams so that they can pay the supreme price.
We appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to re-open the investigation of the brutal murder of Engineer Funsho Williams. The President has done the right thing by re-opening the investigation of the murder of Chief Bola Ige. He will be greatly enhanced in historical reckoning and signification if his administration is attested as being the one that finally nailed the evil characters hiding at plain sight who murdered Funsho Williams.
I am particularly passionate about Funsho who many of his acolytes adorably called Captain. Funsho was my junior at the University of Lagos. We were both Engineering students but sprung from different departments. While he was in Civil Engineering, I was in the Electrical Department.
He was reserved and humble. He was gentle but reflective with sharp analytical convictions. There was always a certain piety about him, an effective calibration in self-effacing innocence. He meant no harm to anyone. But he was firm, resolved, dedicated to the righteous path.
We will never forget him. We will never compromise on ensuring that this beloved son of Lagos gets a deserved justice.
On our part as Ọmọ Eko Pataki, we will not rest. We will not slumber nor sleep until justice prevails over evil. This is our mission. This is our purpose.
Chief Olabode George, FNSE, mni, CON
Atọna Odua of Yorubaland.
Leader of Ọmọ Eko Pataki Forum.