Israel Njemanze was a notable highlife musician who sang to the delight of Nigerians in 1950s. Unfortunately, his life was cut short by some assailants who killed him, dumped and dismembered his body on the railway line in Mushin, Lagos. His killers were later tried, sentenced to death and hanged. FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary writes.
Israel Njemanze .a.k.a Nwoba was a soldier and highlife musician who made waves between 1949 and 1955 before his gruesome murder. He was reputed for being the leader of the band known as ‘Three Night Wizards’. He was a crowd-puller at every performance.
However, he nursed the ambition of building a hotel in Port Harcourt, where he would settle down to play music after his retirement from the armed forces.
This plan was not to be as Njemanze was murdered on Friday, April 7, 1955 in Mushin, Lagos by unknown assailants.
As a soldier, he lived with his family at the Command workshop, Yaba, Lagos. He later formed a band with two guitarist friends hence the name ‘’Three Night Wizards’.
Njemanze was said to have sang a song philosophically that because he had a short height like his parents, he might have a short life.
On April 7, 1955 at about 6 p.m, Njemanze left his wife and six month-old daughter at home for an appointment with some friends in Surulere. After his friends saw him off at Ojuelegba road junction around 9 pm, the musician further decided to also see the treasurer of the band, Mr. Samuel Jegede. It did not occur to him that he was bidding his family eternal farewell.
Njemanze headed towards a lonely path in Mushin to see Jegede. His mission to Jegede’s house was to discuss and resolve the dispute between members of the band.
Also present at the meeting was Jerome Agumadu, alias Seven Seven known as Njemanze’s bosom friend. At the meeting, the musician was said to have apologised to the group for an alleged assault on a member of the band during a performance at a function.
Njemanze and Agamadu were said to have bought drinks for everyone to placate the aggrieved minds. Jegede, remained unappeased. He was said to have threatened Njemanze that ‘’I will kill you if this group breaks up’’.
Members of the group later reached a compromise to reassemble the next day, April 7, 1955 to draw up a code of conduct for members. It was agreed that it would amount to an offence punishable by fine for any member to be rude to another.
The code of conduct was never drawn because Njemanze never returned home from the meeting. He was killed and his body was found butchered on the rail tracks of Railway Line, Mushin in early hours of April 8, 1955.
When detectives swung into action, their findings was revealing and shocking. A taxi driver who was hired by one of the murderers to convey Njemanze’s body to an unknown destination later gave a clue to the police on the matter.
It was learnt that when news filtered that a man had been killed the taxi driver informed the police that while he was having a nap inside his cab in front of Lido Bar in Mosalashi area of Idi-Oro, Lagos on the immediate preceding day, a man tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he could take his sick friend to the hospital.
The driver agreed to the offer and both the hirer and himself drove off towards a street close to Railway Line, Mushin. The driver waited while the man left to consult with a group of men who stood some distance away. He said they came towards him and carried something that appeared to him like a human body.
The driver became apprehensive as he sought to catch a glimpse of the ‘’sick friend ‘because it was dark. He eventually switched on his headlights and what he saw frightened him. The driver could not stand the sight of a man in sleeveless singlet and trousers whose body was soaked in blood.
He quickly told the men that the blood would stain his car and drove off before they could give him any reply.
The driver later reported the findings to the owner of the cab and then to the police. The following morning, two railway porters on duty at the Surulere level crossing were on a routine operation of the rail track.
One of the porters walked faster towards the Mushin post to collect a signal lamp. As he moved along, he whistled on the lonely rugged path. A few metres into his movement, he stepped on strange objects that littered the tracks. He ran back to his colleague. He took a torchlight and moved closer to examine the strange objects, which turned out to be pieces of human body scattered on the rail tracks. The rail iron linings and the ground were splattered with human blood. The men believed that a train had crushed somebody to death in the early hours of the day.
The railway men returned to their post and phoned the railway police, Ebute-Metta. When the police visited the scene, detectives found a piece of paper soaked with blood. During their preliminary investigation, it was later gathered that the dismembered body parts were those of Njemanze.
Extensive investigations began and the trails discovered by the police led them to Ayetoro Street, Jacob Street near Mushin Railway Station and Adegbite Street, Idi- Oro, Mushin. It was a period when the detectives were at best with their work with the aid of police dogs.
The police condoned off these areas and blood spots were traced to the entrance of a house on Adegbite Street.
About 16 men including the man who initially hired the taxi cab were arrested within three days.
On April 25, 1955, the 16 suspects were brought before a Yaba Magistrate’s Court for preliminary inquiry into Njemanze’s murder.
The lower court’s inquiry was concluded on May 23 while eight of the men were sent for trial at the Lagos High Court.
At the high court, the trial of the eight suspects commenced before Justice John Benneth in September 1955.
The prosecution witnesses included Njemanze’s wife, Juliana who recounted how her husband bade her and their six-month old daughter goodbye on April 7 and never returned home. She also testified that she saw the dismembered body of her husband at the Surulere level crossing on Good Friday.
The pathologist who performed the autopsy said mutilation and dismemberment of Njemanze’s body was carried out after his death. He told the court that Njemanze was not killed by a moving train but by wounds sustained on the back of his left ear and on the front aside of his chest.
During the trial, the court visited the railway spot where the body was found, Adegbite Street, Mushin and the places Njemanze visited on the night he was murdered.
The prosecuting senior crown counsel, Charles Madarikan called 35 witnesses who testified against the accused persons and closed the prosecution’s case on September 26, while the defence closed its case on October 5, 1955. Most of the accused persons pleaded alibi.
The prosecutor and the eight defence lawyers addressed the court on October 7. The prosecution maintained that Njemanze was killed at Adegbite Street, Mushin and his body was carried on a bicycle to the rail line where it was found as cover up. He therefore prayed the court that the evidence had shown that the accused men should be sentenced to death by hanging.
The defence lawyers contended that the offence of murder had not been established against the accused men.
In a judgement delivered on October 12, 1955, the jury found six of the accused men guilty and condemned them to death by hanging. Those condemned were Samuel Jegede, Peter Nwangwu, Cyril Anikwe, Michael Adeyemo, Lawal Dada and Dada Owolabi.
When the convicts lodged an appeal at the West African Court of Appeal (WACA), only Lawal Dada’s appeal succeeded and he was freed by Justice de Comarmond.
The remaining five others later faced the hangman’s noose at Broad Street prisons, Lagos.
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