Veteran journalist Richard Akinnola has strongly refuted allegations made by Brigadier-General Kunle Togun (retd.) against the late human rights lawyer, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN. Akinnola, a close associate of Fawehinmi, dismissed Togun’s claims as completely false and misleading.
Togun, a former Deputy Director of the State Security Service (SSS), made the controversial remarks during an interview on the Edmund Obilo podcast. He alleged that Fawehinmi’s opposition to former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida was fueled by a failed business opportunity he had with the Muhammadu Buhari regime before the 1985 coup.
Reacting to this, Akinnola stated that Fawehinmi was never a businessman and had no financial dealings with Buhari’s government. He described the allegations as “egregious, insidious, and fallacious,” adding that they were meant to distort history.
Akinnola wrote, “He said that Gani was so much against the Babangida regime because he was pained that the 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.
“There was no doubt that Gani supported General Buhari’s war on corruption with the setting up of Recovery of Public Property (Special Military Tribunals) Decree 3 of 1984, which pitted him against the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
“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.”
Refuting claims that Fawehinmi sought government favors, Akinnola stressed that the activist’s only engagements were in law practice, legal writing, and publishing. He referenced past interviews, including a 1995 Tell magazine feature and a 2000 Voice of Nigeria (VON) interview, where Babangida himself acknowledged Fawehinmi as an honest and principled critic, not a corrupt individual.
Akinnola also recalled a similar falsehood spread by Fawehinmi’s former friend, Dr. Olu Onagoruwa. Onagoruwa, who later accepted an appointment as Attorney General under Sani Abacha, claimed in his book that Buhari helped Fawehinmi buy an apartment in London. Akinnola dismissed this as another baseless story aimed at damaging the late activist’s legacy.
