LAGOS, Dec 24: Undentified gunmen on Sunday murdered Nigerian Justice Minister Bola Ige, a close aide and friend to President Olusegun Obasanjo, who on Monday called an emergency meeting of his top staff, officials said.

Ige, 71, an outspoken politician from the ethnic Yoruba community, was shot dead late on Sunday at his residence in Ibadan, capital of southwest Oyo State, his close political associates said.

The unexplained killing sent the government into a state of shock and has caused jitters in ruling circles, with politicians asking who the next possible victim might be, political sources told AFP.

“If Bola Ige, the nation’s chief law officer could be killed that way, then there is a serious problem in this country which the government urgently needs to tackle,” Bola Akinterinwa, a public commentator, said.

A formal statement on the murder was due to be released shortly, an official in the presidency said.

Political analysts said it was possible that Ige was assassinated because of a crisis in Osun State, where he had for two years been enmeshed in political turmoil afflicting his Alliance for Democracy (AD) party.

Akinterinwa said that he did not rule out a political vendetta in the murder.—AFP