The unexpected occurred on Friday, October 6, 1995, between 8.15 and 8.30 am. In front of Pa Alfred Rewane’s residence at 100 Oduduwa Crescent, G.R.A., Ikeja, Lagos, a Peugeot 504 automobile screamed to a stop. Five men got out of the car’s belly looking like murderers from the Sicilian Cosa Nostra. They went up to the guard and explained that they were there to visit the landlord in order to deliver a crucial message from Life Flour Mills in Sapele. The business is owned by Pa Rewane. They pushed a document in front of the gatekeeper. He quickly unscrewed the gate from its lubricated hinges. The men came in.
Head was heading upstairs to let the domestic staff know he had some visitors. Together with the aide, two of the men ascended the steps. While the others were occupied with the landlord upstairs, they had taken two of the Chief’s daughters captive. The attackers fired numerous rounds into the defenseless elderly man’s body. He passed away.
Rewane was born in Warri, Nigeria, to Jemide Erewarone’s family. His full name at birth was Ogbeyiwa Erewarone. Rewane’s father was an Agbor-based businessman. During the period that his father was away from Warri, Rewane remained with his uncle, who was a devout follower at the time and gave Rewane his first name, Alfred.
He received his education in Warri at the African School and later the Government School.
Rewane did not continue his schooling after being accepted to Dennis Memorial Grammar School for his secondary education. He began his career with UAC as a manager trainee and eventually rose to the position of beach master at Lagos Customs Wharf. The image above was captured in the early 1970s during Muhammad Ali’s tour to Nigeria while serving as an ambassador for Ovaltine.Ovaltine Nigeria had Alfred Ogbeyiwa Rewane as a key shareholder.
After leaving UAC in the 1940s, he concentrated on importing products, particularly black pepper and cow bones. In the 1950s, he also got involved in the wood trade and owned the Rex club in Yaba, Lagos, where Bobby Benson performed frequently. Rewane was a member of the Action Group during Nigeria’s pre-independence period. He rose to the position of chairman of the Western Nigeria Development Company, a regional government managed by the Action Group. Rewane supported several companies in Sapele’s collaboration with the US Seaboard Corporation during the 1970s.
Among the businesses were Top Feeds, West African Shrimps, and Life Flour Mills.
Rewane’s Lagos home served as the location of political gatherings in the 1990s that resulted in the creation of NADECO. Additionally, he was Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s close buddy. He was well-known for being a significant funder of the organization that openly opposed Sani Abacha’s military government.
In relation to his murder, the Nigerian police detained seven people; however, two of the suspects were released from custody after the prosecution presented weak evidence. The five suspects who passed away while in detention are not known to the Nigerian public or Pa Alfred’s family because it is rumored that they were killed as soon as they disclosed who had ordered their demise.
Who murderer Alfred Rewane? Who killed the decent man? When Alfred Rewane was killed, this was the song and the question the warri and Itshekiri people were posing to the government in Lagos and throughout Nigeria.