The Nigerian government are to dispatch troops to Oyun State, in response to the murder of the Justice Minister Bola Ige, who was shot dead yesterday.
Ige, 71, was an outspoken critic of the military regimes of the past, a prominent figure in the Yoruba ethnic group, and a known foe of aspects of the implementation of Sharia - or the strict Islamic legal code - in some of the northern, Muslim majority states of secular Nigeria.
Unidentified gunmen entered his house on Sunday night and shot him once in the chest.
The minister had been embroiled in a feud in Osun State politics, though it was not clear Monday that this was the motive for the murder.
The governor of Osun State, Bisi Akande, and his deputy, Iyiola Omisore, who have been engaged in a political clash in the last two years, have been summoned to Abuja to a meeting with Obasanjo, the statement said.
Political analysts said that the bitter feud between the two politicians has snowballed into the murder of Ige and a legislator, close to Omisore.
Ige was believed to be the political "godfather" of Akande.
Akande had served as Ige's deputy when the latter served as governor of old Oyo State 20 years ago.
State-run NTA television reported that Ige's security aides were unavailable when the assassins struck, having obtained permission from the late minister to go to have their supper.
Obasanjo cancelled a planned trip to Zimbabwe after he was informed of the murder.
The president had been due to hold talks with his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe, who has been coming under increasing international fire for political violence ahead of a presidential election due in March.
AFP