The nationalist struggle to abrogate British raj in Nigeria was unrelenting and total. The Yoruba nation that hosted the capital of colonial Nigeria, Lagos, also produced in their ranks finest nationalists like Herbert Macaulay, Obafemi Amowolo, Adegoke Adelabu among, others. Other ethnic groups equally paraded formidable nationalists. In the run-up to independence in 1960, the outspoken critics of the colonial government, Awolowo and Azikiwe were shortchanged in the post-independence national leadership. The more moderate, plaint nationalists represented by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa emerged as the new Prime Minister of Nigeria. The 1959 General Elections did not produced a dominant party with absolute majority in the parliament. This necessitated a coalition government between Balewas NPC and Azikiwes NCNC. The AG of Awolowo chose to be the official opposition. In the bread ad butter politics of the era, this stand of the AG did not go down well with some party officials who desired that the AG ought to join in a national government at the center. At the Jos convention of AG in 1962, the party sacked its secretary general, Ayo Rosiji and abolished the post of deputy leader occupied by S. l. Akintola. This precipitated a crisis which led to the dismissal of the premier S.L Akintola by the Governor and the appointment of D.S. Adegbenro in his stead. But Akintolas supporters invaded the Western Regional House of Assembly, disrupting the sessions and made it impossible for Adegbenro to assume office as the premier.

The police were overtly supporting the Akintola faction in the crisis. On 29 May 1962, the federal parliament unanimously passed a motion calling on the government to declare a state of emergency in Western Region. This resolution was promptly enforced by the government of Tafawa Balewa and a sole administration was appointed to administer the region. Awolowo and his supporters who had been in detention since Nov. 1962 were subsequently charged for treasonable felony. In 1963 Awolowo was convicted of treason and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. The Western Region experienced cataclysmic implosion despite the near-police state imposed on the region. The 1964 general elections could not take place in the region due to the total breakdown of law and order. The 1965 elections in the region were a mockery of democracy. The "operation wetie", arson, murder and widespread terrorism polarized Yoruba politics into two camps: those who held power by sheer protection of the "federal might" and those denied of their legitimate by oppressive central government. This paper purports to show that the rule of law and illegality are two strange bedfellows and that those who fail to stand up against injustice and oppression being meted to others would later be consumed by the same inferno.