Except XXXIX from Moral Goodness In Our Lifetime, By Pastor Ajayi James BC

Sir Arthur Richard 1943-1945;Sir John MacPherson 1945-1958 and Sir James Robertson 1958-1960.The killing of Adelabu Adegoke was really a bad omen of the turbulent events that would eventually earn the Western Region of Nigeria the ugly appellation of “the Wild West.”
From 1960 when Nigeria got her independence from Britain, political events became more vibrant. With the vibrancy came the do-or-die Politics that grew out of the divisiveness entrenched in the polity years back by the colonial masters as l have mentioned in earlier chapters of this book.
That do-or-die politics was exposed clearly to me in the 1965 elections when l was twenty years old.l remember now as if it was yesterday the tense atmosphere when fierce-looking riot police men moved into my hometown, lgogo-Ekiti, in convoys of large heavy-duty trucks around 1300 hours clutching their rifles. Voting had ended a few hours before midnight and counting was to commence thereafter.
There were two major candidates from my local government council contesting in the election; the two belonged to two rival political parties.One was from my hometown and the other was from my local government council headquarters ,Otun-Ekiti. For reasons best known to the government of the day and the electoral umpires, counting of votes was not held at the local government headquarters but in my town.
There had been brutal verbal exchanges between supporters of both political parties for several weeks before election day but no major violence apart from skirmishes by overzealous party supporters. One of my cousins was the electoral officer for the election day who would be the Returning Officer. It was on the day of election that l learnt that a native of my town would be the Returning Officer, and that final collation and counting would take place in my hometown.
The market square in my hometown had always been the centre of major activities for as long as l could remember. So l knew that the collation and counting would be held. Consequently, on election day l left my father’s house and moved into my maternal uncle’s one-storey building situated directly opposite the Town Hall, about a hundred metres away. l had learnt to ward-off sleeping by drinking hot coffee while preparing for examinations. So l determined not to get a wink of sleep nor to dose on that night of collation and counting as l suspected great things would happen …………(TO BE CONTINUED IN EXCERPT FORTY)