"There was a day Babangida sent me to Obasanjo at his farm. I used to take briefcases full of money to Obasanjo from Banangida. That was when corruption started, he cannot deny it." These statements were part of the revelations of the former Press Secretary to General Ibrahim Babangida, Major Debo Basorun, who escaped from Nigeria to save his life under the dictator's regime.

Those conversant with the politico-military situation in Nigeria in the late 1980s will remember the enigmatic Major Adebowale (Debo) Basorun, the military spokesman during the Ibrahim Babangida junta. Somehow, his path crossed with the military establishment he was serving at the time and the gadfly hightailed out of the country so that he could live to fight another day.

He had stunned not only the military establishment but also the country with his resignation, and when it was rejected, the irrepressible army officer went to court in a landmark suit to seek protection from harassment and intimidation by some top officials in the Nigerian Army, notably the Chief of Army Staff, General Sani Abacha, the then Director of Military Intelligence, Halilu Akilu, and the Director of Army Public Relations, Fred Chijuka.

Surprisingly, while the suit was still pending, Basorun fled the country in April 1989 to the United States through what later came to be known as the famous ‘NADECO route’ after several unsuccessful attempts to silence him.
Since his return to the country about two years ago after his close to 19-year sojourn in the U.S., the former Press and Public Affairs Officer (Military Press Secretary) to Babangida (then military president) had kept a safe distance from the media, with which he had related very closely in the past. But he recently broke his silence, which, according to him, is for purposes of putting the records straight as a prelude to the release of his memoirs.

As he revealed to Sunday Sun in this earth-shaking, no-holds-barred interview, indeed the first since his return, the events that led to his fleeing the country were not unconnected with the morbid suspicion that he held the key that could unravel the dastardly murder via parcel bomb of the founding editor-in-chief of the Newswatch Magazine, Mr Dele Giwa, in October 1986.
With nostalgia, he recalls the incidents that led to Giwa’s death and how he stumbled on some iron-cast evidence. He, however, looks forward to the day himself, Babangida and Akilu would be brought before the people’s court to answer all they know pertaining to the cruel murder of Giwa. That is if he is not assassinated before then, he says.

Like a man sold out to his beliefs, Basorun knew the path he would tread when he enlisted in the Nigerian Army at the outbreak of the civil war in 1967 as a Private in the Infantry Corps. He therefore had no qualms when he decided to dump his job in a multinational firm where he had just been promoted.

But what actually hastened his passion to wear the starched green khaki uniform, to the consternation of his friends and family members, was an altercation with a drunken soldier over a lady at a popular joint then in the Mushin area of Lagos State. While celebrating his promotion, he had bought some bottles of beer for the uniformed man, only for the latter, at the height of his stupor, to attempt to forcibly take away Debo’s girl as he made to leave the joint. The slightest resistance from the ‘bloody civilian’ attracted several ‘dirty’ slaps on his face, and before those at the joint could say jack, the drunken soldier had mobilised his colleagues and pandemonium broke out. Debo had to flee for his life.

But, indeed, the incident made an indelible impact on the young Basorun that when he joined the army, he was emotionally and psychologically prepared to confront whatever he considered an injustice. Little wonder years later, he overcame several efforts to undermine him by his superiors and juniors.

I left Nigeria through Republic of Benin
You do not need to commit any offence in the military to get into trouble. They can just slam you for some frivolous charges of disobedience to order and other sundry misdemeanours and that is it. And mine was not an exception. I had gone through all kinds of trouble and persecution and when I decided to resign, the army and the powers that be felt I knew too much. And I did really. So I resigned. But they did not accept my resignation, that was the problem. There was a circular or a directive in military jargon which says those of you working with a particular organization should resign whenever you want to join politics. So I quoted that in my resignation letter. ‘Sir, I’m resigning, luckily you said it, and I’m going to join politics.’ Now, because they never expected it, they said I could not resign and I asked why. Because if I got out they would not be able to nail me because I was pregnant with all kinds of secrets, they wanted me to remain so they could eventually get rid of me. So what I did was to find a way to save my skin. I left Nigeria through Republic of Benin.

Alao Aka-Bashorun represented me in court
There was a time we arrested the then President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Alao Aka-Bashorun. Most people would tell you that when we detained them I was the one that championed their cause. Along the line, I worked towards his release and we became close. So, I went to meet him, but he was scared. He asked me if I knew what I was getting into and I told him I just wanted to make an example of those people. At a point we filed a suit in court. The army objected but I said I had resigned. They reminded me of the consequences of my suing the army but I said I was ready for anything.

The day I could have killed everybody, including myself at a Lagos High Court
The case was being heard at Igbosere High Court in Lagos. When I was going to the court, I packed my passports, some of my belongings and I started rotating where I slept. I knew the army would be on my trail. Throughout the time of the case in court they were looking for me but I was always on the move, a step ahead. They disregarded many injunctions just to capture me. There was even a day they got an Air Force plane waiting at Ikeja, they went to the court; that day I would have killed myself, killed everybody.
I simply went to court with an ‘Uzzi’ on me. Femi Falana would confirm it if you ask him. I got the gun through dark sources. That day the army even brought an APC (Armoured Personnel Carrier) to make sure they grabbed me at the court premises. I told Femi (Falana) and Oga ( Aka-Bashorun) Bashorun, ‘these people were trying to get me.’ I therefore pulled off my agbada because nobody would search me. When oga Bashorun saw what I had under my agbada, he screamed and told me that I should not do anything. I would probably have killed twenty but I know eventually they would have killed me in return but I was determined not to go down alone. It was Ogbemudia who was the director of the legal services and he represented the army. That man went to tell Justice Thomas of what was happening. The Justice decided he would not do anything until the soldiers were cleared. That was how the planned tragedy was aborted that day.
It is like me coming to your office and you did not know I was armed and eventually I start shooting. You won’t have time to react.
After that, Oga Bashorun told me to hide and I did but at this time I sent messages out to let people know what was going on.

A soldier saved me from ‘capture him dead or alive’ signal
There was this friend of mine in whose house I slept one day. He told me to accompany him to a party at Ibadan. I did. That night, my friend’s wife fell ill and they being members of Celestial Church, the wife opted to go to their church at Abeokuta instead of the hospital. So as soon as we finished the party we were about coming through the express way and something told me we should go and see her at Abeokuta but the man said, no, that he saw her a day before that day. I got there and as soon as we drove into the premise, the woman was screaming and asked me, trembling, if I saw a person? I asked what person?

What actually happened was that the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) officers who were ordered to capture me whether dead or alive, listed the numbers of my vehicles, everything they knew about me, most likely the areas that I would frequent. A long time before then, when I was in Dodan barracks, Dimgba (Igwe) was in Concord (newspaper) then; there was this story about some of our boys who were caught at the border and were about to be charged with armed robbery. They were intelligent operatives stand-by at the border check points, but what these boys did was, they caught a smuggler and the smuggler was trying to negotiate with them and later they agreed on something or they would have seized the goods. But the man had connections with the press and went to Concord, and behold it was on the front page. When I got to the office I was told to get those guys arrested and brought back to me. The boys were brought back, locked up with the SSS.

After locking them up, my job was completed. There were about 18 or 28 of them. After this, I thought justice was taking its course. Then suddenly one day, at the first gate, because there were three gates before you get into the barrack, I was told there was a woman waiting to see me. I was surprised because they couldn’t have stopped this woman at the gate if she was my wife. The woman was speaking in Yoruba and only the Yoruba soldiers among them were able to translate what she was saying, that she wanted to see me. Well, I didn’t want a strange woman coming into my office, so I went downstairs to see her at the gate. I was talking through the gate with her. She said she was looking for Bashorun and I asked her where she came from. From Ekiti, she answered. Because she was an illiterate, she couldn’t read my name which was on my tag.

After a few minutes, I told her I was the person she was looking for, let her in and asked what she wanted to tell me. She said her son was one of those arrested at the border and that the Hausa boys were being released and that the remaining ones in the cell southerners. This woman’s son had nobody to turn to other than his mother. He sent a message to the mother that there was a Yoruba man in the other barrack and they should come and beg me to help him. I said I could not promise her anything but that if it was true only southerners were still being held, I would know how to take up the case. She left, but wanted to know when to come back. I told her not to come, that I would do my best. After my findings, I realized it was true, that the director of SSS, one Gwarzo, a Kano guy actually had had the Hausa guys released from their lock-up. I called him on the phone and asked him what was happening to these boys, brought from Idi-Iroko border. I told him I learnt he was releasing the Hausa boys and leaving the southerners. He said, oh Bashorun you have come with your tribalism because, we used to get into each other’s face all the time. I said well, I knew the number of boys brought into detention and their names. Where are they now?, I asked.
About fifteen minutes later he called back and asked for the Yoruba boy’s name who sought my assistance and he released him. That was the man who saved me from the gallows.
After his release he came to me and I advised him to be more behaved. There was a day Babangida sent me to Obasanjo at his farm. I used to take briefcases full of money to Obasanjo from Banangida. That was when corruption started, he cannot deny it.

…He intercepted the signal, hid it in his shirt and pretended to be ill
That boy I assisted was posted to Obasanjo and on one of the days I visited Obasanjo, this boy still remembered me and came to me, greeted me but I couldn’t remember his face. He reminded me and since then each time I went to Obasanjo, he was always there. He treated me well. After a while I didn’t see him until this trouble broke out. He had been redeployed from Obasanjo’s personal security to their SSS headquarters in Ogun state.



Read more: wwwagainstbabangida.com

Waste of energy!!!