Thsiday Online, October 26, 2010 Chuks Okocha, Tobi Soniyi and Onyebuchi Ezeigbo He’s been accused of many things and called many names, but nobody ever accused Chief Femi Fani-Kayode of not speaking his mind. And nobody ever accused him of not being strong-willed. Lawyer, politician and now, gubernatorial aspirant Fani-Kayode who shot into national, if somewhat controversial, prominence as Media Special Assistant to President Obasanjo and later as Minister of Tourism and Culture, then Aviation turned 50 two weeks ago. And shows no sign of turning down the heat... He spoke with CHUKS OKOCHA, TOBI SONIYI and ONYEBUCHI EZEIGBO in Abuja, last week…

Vanguard, October 3, 2010 My husband, Mr Saka Kasumu was a photographer with the Daily Times of Nigeria in the 1960's.He said one morning in January 1966. he had gone to the Daily Times newsroom to check if there were photo assignments to be covered. He said he was browsing through a newspaper when a call came through the telephone on the News Editor’s desk. When he picked it a voice said "is that Daily Times?"

Vanguard, October 3, 2010 What exactly do you know about the circumstances surrounding the death of your father? Let me start by saying that I was 10 years old and was not even in the country when that coup took place. I was sent to Britain to finish my primary school.So in July or so 1965, I left the shores of Nigeria for Britain. And I was 10 years old but I used to hear on radio that the Prime Minister had been abducted, he had been taken to Port Harcourt; he has been taken to Abeokuta and other such places. As I held unto the small transmitter radio as a small boy, in my mind I said my father is dead or they may kill my father or what ever. At the end that was what happened.

Vanguard, October 3, 2010 By Emma Ujah and Adamu Shaibu The interview of Chief M. T. Mbu in which said Sir Abubakar was not killed but died of asthma in the heat of the January 15, 1966 is generating controversy. As an intelligence officer then, what do you know about the PM’s death? It is very sad for me that I have to go back into this painful event of January 1966. As young police officer working in the intelligence service of the Nigeria Police, I had the privilege of getting all the facts in support of the evidence to what had happened in the morning of January 15th in Lagos, in Ibadan, in Kaduna – where a group of army mutineers organized by some well-known people went on a killing spree.

Vanguard, October 2, 2010 by Abdulsalam Muhammed. It was actually, Alhaji Ahmad Ibrahim Babankowa who, as an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) serving at Ota in present day Ogun State, in January 1966, that discovered the corpses of Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh.

Vanguard, October 2, 2010 by Femi Fani- Kayode. On Chief Osoba’s comment that his (Femi Fani-Kayode’s) reaction to Chief Mbu’s that Balewa might have died of asthmatic attack, was based on emotion. I was simply asked to make my contribution to this crucial debate and I did so gladly because this is a matter of tremendous national importance.

Modern Ghana, September 27, 2010 By Femi Fani- Kayode. There has been so much confusion, misunderstanding and misinformation about who actually moved the motion for Nigeria's independence. Given the fact that Nigeria will be 50 years old on October 1st and it marks our jubilee year as an independent nation I believe that it is time to to set the record straight and bring this matter to closure. And in order to do so successfully we must be guided by facts and historical records and not by sentiment or political considerations.

The Vanguard, September 27, 2010 By Femi Fani- Kayode. Your editorial of September 24th 2010 titled: “The Balewa Saga” raised some interesting issues and frankly amused me. This was especially so when the writer asserted that “at five” I “was too young to have known what happened” and that I am relying on what my father told me “to refute Mbu’s story”. I really do wonder whether the writer of that editorial even bothered to read the full text of my two articles on this matter? Since the debate on the death of Sir Tafawa Balewa began I have never said or written anywhere that I relied on the testimony that I heard from my father as the basis for my assertions and to suggest that I did is simply not true.

Vanguard, September 26, 2010 by Wale Akinola. A former external affairs minister,Chief M.T .Mbu, sparked off a controversy recently when he claimed that the Nigerian prime minister in the first republic, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa,died of asthma. The claim was disputed by those who held on to the view that Balewa had been shot dead by coup plotters who had abducted him ,among other political leaders of the country, on January 15, 1966. Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a former minister of state in the ministry of transportation, did a two-part article on the controversy on the side of those who believed Balewa was killed by the coup plotters and his body dumped at a spot along Lagos-Abeokuta Road .

The Vanguard, September 24, 2010 By Vanguard's Editorial. Why has the manner of Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s death become a hot issue 44 years after his demise? Can something be achieved by having a correct version of the account of his death? Would it be important to know how Nigeria ’s first Prime Minister died?

AllAfrica.com, September 19, 2010 by Femi Fani- Kayode. Let me begin by commending Mr. O’seun Ogunseitan and the convenors of this vital discussion on the death of Sir Tafawa Balewa who have given us the opportunity to iron out this vital issue of monumental historical importance once and for all and then hopefully, at the end of it all, we can perhaps bring the matter to closure.

Leadership Editors, September 6, 2010 by Ali Alkali And Lawal Sabo Ibrahim, Abuja Nigerians must not let Mbu or anyone else attempt to revise history before their very eyes “just to cover cold blooded murderers and cowards” that killed the late Tafawa Balewa and other prominent Nigerians. This was the position of the former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP yesterday night in Abuja.