Veteran journalist and longtime associate of the late human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, Richard Akinnola, has strongly refuted allegations made by retired Brigadier-General Kunle Togun, a former Deputy Director of the State Security Service (SSS).
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Akinnola condemned Togun’s claims as “egregious, insidious, and fallacious.”
Togun, in an interview on the Edmund Obilo Podcast, alleged that Fawehinmi’s opposition to military dictator Ibrahim Babangida stemmed from a disrupted business favor he was supposedly set to receive from Muhammadu Buhari’s regime before the 1985 coup.
Akinnola dismissed this assertion as outright falsehood, emphasizing that Fawehinmi was never involved in business and had no financial ties to the Buhari administration.
“He said that Gani was so much against the Babangida regime because he was pained that Babangida’s coup, which overthrew General Buhari, scuttled Buhari’s business favour to Gani, which was in the works before Buhari was overthrown. He said Gani supported the Buhari regime, particularly in the trial of politicians for corruption by military tribunals,” Akinnola wrote.
While acknowledging that Fawehinmi backed Buhari’s anti-corruption campaign under the Recovery of Public Property (Special Military Tribunals) Decree 3 of 1984, Akinnola clarified that the lawyer’s support was not unconditional.
“While it’s true that Gani supported the Buhari junta in the trial of politicians and former public officers, his support was not blanket. He squared up with Buhari when it came to matters of the rule of law and disobedience to court orders. One example would suffice.”
He cited Fawehinmi’s legal battle against the government over the wrongful interdiction of firefighter Saidu Garba, which led to the resignation of Justice Yaya Jinadu.
Akinnola also rejected Togun’s claim that Fawehinmi sought government favors, asserting that his only professional engagements were in law practice, legal writing, and publishing.
To further disprove the allegations, he referenced past interviews, including the Tell Magazine interview from July 24, 1995, titled “I Am Evil Genius”, and the Voice of Nigeria (VON) Hausa Service interview from October 24, 2000. In both instances, Babangida acknowledged Fawehinmi as a principled critic and champion of the June 12 struggle, never as someone seeking financial gain.
Akinnola also highlighted similar falsehoods spread in the past by Dr. Olu Onagoruwa, Fawehinmi’s former ally, who claimed in his book that Buhari helped Fawehinmi purchase a London apartment. He noted that Onagoruwa had accepted a position as Attorney General under Sani Abacha’s regime against Fawehinmi’s advice.
Stressing the need to protect Fawehinmi’s legacy from distortion, Akinnola vowed that those who truly knew and worked with the late activist would continue to counter any misinformation about his life and work.
