Lieutenant General Donaldson Oladipo Diya (Chief of General Staff)

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (Chief Security Officer to the Head of State).



I went through hell. If there was hell on earth, I saw it...apart from the initial mental torture, the agony I had to go through was enormous, because I was the only officer that was subjected to various cells transfer. I was taken to the worst cell and when I asked question, I was told Abacha directed that I should be kept in the worst cell. In fact, that cell...it’s dark, there is not light, it’s infested, it’s so narrow that in fact you have to stand both day and night...That was the first stage of the torture. And for two, three nights I spent there, it was harrowing. After complaining, they had to push me out to another cell. I think I went through about four or five cells in that place.

We were there for three months, and nobody came to talk to you so that you can even ask what was going on...They sent for me; with the usual chaining, arms shackles, whatever and took me to the interrogation centre somewhere in Ikoyi, off Bourdillion. We got in there and I met one of the panels. Omenka was there. One other officer, whose name I have forgotten, and Zakari Biu. And they asked me if I knew why I was there, I said no. They said they were surprised. They said okay, what was my movement like in the last two or three years?… They said, “Look, don’t you know why you are here? Don’t you know the plan you have to topple the government? I said, “This is news to me. I don’t know of that. I have never planned to overthrow any government right from the day I was commissioned”... they were very hostile and they said okay, since I was not willing to cooperate, I should go and put down my statement. So...at about 6 to 6.15 p.m. a private soldier came and said he had instruction that we should come out. We got out. He said we should UnCloth. We took off our shirts and trousers. He said no, no, we should be naked completely. So, we took off everything. We were naked and we were chained, back to back, and that was how we walked into the open. We stayed there right from about that time till 7 a.m. We spent the night standing...Another funny thing was while they kept us there, Bello-Fadile was chained alone and kept close to us. Maybe they wanted to hear if there had been anything; maybe we could talk, they’ll pick it up. They sent out some men to monitor what was going on. And we kept asking Bello-Fadile, “What is going on? Please if you know, let us know and save us from this humiliation”. He said he did not know, so that was our first ordeal. The following morning, when people started coming to work, they pushed us in, we wore our dresses; and we were still chained hand to hand, leg to leg and kept in the open field in the scorching sun. My colleague asked for water, he was refused water. At about 4 p.m. the second day, we were now thrown into one dungeon behind, so that nobody would see us… After some time, I heard nothing. And a week or two later, that was when they came picked me up, took me back to the same place, this time, me alone, to ask the same question. I said, “Please, I really don’t know what you people want”. They said well, it would appear I was not ready to cooperate. They claimed that in my movement, they observed that at a point in time, I spoke to Bello-Fadile in his office. I said, “Yes, but I told you, when I came, I had this tooth and eye problem. I went to Bonny Camp which was where Bello-Fadile was ad director of legal services, and we had just finished from Enugu, and he is my course-mate and friend, I felt like saying hi to him. And that was exactly what I did. In fact I spent less than two minutes with Bello-Fadile”. But they said no, no, we spent about two, three hours talking…They took me behind a cell and of course had to hang me. They call it the spider hanging - your hands up, the two legs all suspended, I was there throughout the night. They pulled my shirt off so, I was in my pant only. Look. Name all the kinds of insects, they preyed on me. I told them you are punishing an innocent man. The following day, they took me back to my cell...About three weeks later, the same Zakari Biu came...With shackles on, I was blindfolded. The next thing, they pushed me into a waiting vehicle and sped off, driving roughly…I didn’t know where they were heading to. But somehow, having had a little knowledge of Lagos, through the cries in the various bus-stops, I was able to kind of guess where they were taking me to. They took me to that particular area and I heard shouts and cries, like some other people were being tortured. “Colonel”, they kept asking me, “tell us what you have done. Tell us how much Bello-Fadile gave to you. How much was promised you by some generals. And I said, “Look I’m sorry. Nobody ever gave me money”...They said okay, I am not ready to talk. This time, I was in chains. I had been blindfolded, I didn’t know what was going on. Then later, that other man that was being tortured was now… I heard a kind of silence, I believed he has passed out and they dropped him. They said I should come out.

In fact, they themselves just brought me out like a bundle of firewood and the next thing, they just threw me on the ground, folded my legs, folded my hands behind and they tied me like they tie logs and they carried me like that. All I knew was a pole was inserted under my armpit and like a barbecued chicken; I was there suspended for hours. In fact, by the time I passed out, everything about me, the limbs, all were gone. While there, they would strike a match and put under my nose, my eyes, to say something, to confess… so after almost about two hours of torture, I was finished, and by the time I regained consciousness, I could not shout, I couldn’t even move. They knew I was passing out. They just removed me, and dumped me like you dump… if you’ve been to abattoir, you must have seen how they throw a slaughtered cow...For 10 good days, I was lying prostrate on the bed. I couldn’t move my knees. Even eating, they had to spoonfeed me

At the end of Emokpae’s “trial” he was sentenced to death by firing squad. “As soon as he [Patrick Aziza] said it, I said, “I’m rejecting it in the name of the Lord”. Openly, he shouted at me, “Shut up and sit down”...Before we knew it, vehicles, tanks and all these things had been brought in, we were shackled again and we were taken back to the black Maria. It was on July 14, 1995 that the judgement was passed”.

Testimony of Colonel Roland Emokpae


How on earth can we explain this, a professor of my own calibre and age who has served the country for so
many years in different capacities being subjected to indignity and utmost brutality by some majors and privates
who are nitwits ordinarily. I’m not being boastful. It’s like you take a jewel and you start messing it up in the
mud. You cannot explain it. Any time I recalled the humiliation meted out to me by those nitwits I started
weeping, not for myself, but for Nigeria, country, which was being savagely reduced to nothingness.
Professor Femi Odekunle [Tell, August 31, 1998:20]

Yar’ Adua was hale and hearty inside Abakaliki Prison. Then some people came saying they were from Abacha
and they wanted to take Yar’Adua for medical check-up. They picked him up hale and hearty but he arrived
the University Teaching Hospital, Enugu dead. What happened between Abakaliki and Enugu nobody seems
to know. But something happened and if pressure is put on those people who picked him up they would give
an answer to the country.
Comrade Shehu Sani, a Northern Nigerian human rights activists arrested
for the 1995 phantom coup on the account of his human rights activism
[TheNews 7 Sept. 1998:15, 18].

Zakari Biu is an animal. He’s just wicked..he is dead to feelings. I fact, I don’t know why such people should
still be walking the streets of Lagos or this country. I am surpised as I am told that he has even been promoted,
even given special assignments. I am surprised at this government. Zakari Biu, for what, they know him to have
done, that they could still keep him. This government itself is culpable of all acts they committed...Omenka
started the whole thing. He co-supervised our torture. But the main actor in my case was really Zakari Biu. I
say both of them have the same instincts, if we compare them.
Col. Ronald Emokpae [Tell, April 12, 1999:24].

I have called for the arrest and trial immediately at the Abuja High Court the following government officials
for the atrocities committed against Nigeria and Nigerians in the course of the late Gen. Abacha’s
administration: Alhaji Ismaila Gwazo; Brigadier-Gen. Sabo [rtd].., Col. Frank Omenka..There are also Lt. Col.
M. Garuba..and Lt. Ibrahim who was one of the people beating Generals in Jos...For the purpose of true national
reconciliation and genuine peace, these people should be retired and be put on trial.
Chief Yomi Tokoya, a suspected coupist released on July 15, 1998 [The News 7
Sept 1998:19]

..the experience I had when the government decided to send Operation Sweep, a para-military outfit to break
up the farewell reception the human rights groups and pro-democracy activists organised for me, personally was
a vivid demonstration of the dehumanisation Nigerians were going through everyday under the General Abacha
administration. It was very surprising and careless about international protocol, hence they could break a
reception held for an ambassador.
Ambassador Walter Carrington, former US Ambassador to Nigeria [Tell, March 29
1999:25]

Sergeant Barnabas Jabila (a.k.a Sgt Rogers)

General Sani Abacha (Head of State & Commander in Chief). Behind him is Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (Chief security officer to the C in C)

Lieutenant General Jeremiah ("Jerry Boy" ) Timbukt Useni (F.C.T Minister)

Chief Tom Ikimi (Foreign Minister)

General Saninegeria Mohammed Abacha (Head of State and Commander in Chief)

General Sani Abacha. There were rumours (which were denied by his spokesmen) that he was ill.

General Sani Abacha (Head of State & Commander in Chief) & Lieutenant General Abdulsalam Abubakar (Minister of Defence & Chief of Defence Staff)

General Abdulsalam Alhaji Abubakar being sworn in as Head of State and Commander in Chief by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mohammed Lawal Uwais

Morning break.

naptu2: General Olusegun Obasanjo

Lol what year was this?

naptu2: Eromosele The Great (1876-1921). Onojie of Irrua (picture from a photograph recovered at the ancestral shrine).



Eromosele could be disarmingly nice while planning a ruthless demonstration of his power. Once he took unto himself a wife. He became so fond of this new acquisition that he forgot the one hundred and one other women pinning away unseen in the harem. He could give anything to please this bride. They spent practically the whole day together.

One afternoon, as they sat together on the main throne, the girl lay across his lap and stroked his white beard. Gleefully she said, “Unbelievable! To think this is the Eromosele that all Irrua dread!” “M-h’m!” Eromosele smiled bitterly without ever opening his mouth.

He gave his bride an extra caress, called his chief steward and whispered into his ears. The romance continued until a few hours after which the steward returned, bowed deeply and murmured, “Thy will has been done my lord!”

Eromosele gave one deep yawn and told the bride that it was time they went in for a nap. They arose and the Onojie, anxious to please his beauty, stepped back for her to lead. At the door to the inner quadrangle, the wife discovered that what she nearly stepped upon was a human head. She jumped back, inviting the husband to take a look. With “What’s that?” he made the young woman take a closer look. She screamed, for the head was that of her father! “Go on”, commanded the unruffled monarch. She stepped across and again, she nearly put her delicate foot on something on the other side; she looked, then she fainted. Her mother’s body lay across the other side of the gate! The Onojie fondly put his arm around the girl’s waist and smiled, this time with the beard spread from ear to ear: “That is THE EROMOSELE Irrua knows!”.

na lie

Naptu,
Enjoying the showcase......GREAT JOB!

The house in Surulere that IBB took refuge in was off Olukole Street in Surulere. It was the humble starter home of MKO before he rose to executive positiin in ITT. The family held on to that house even after he had built his wealth. It was very simple and did not stand out at all. I dont know if they still own it or not.

I dont appreciate you saying a controversy exist over the story of origins in Lagos. There is no controversy, some people are just infatuated by their newly discovered rights to free speech thats all. The other day some chap was saying it is wrong to say the Lagos royal house is Bini......he wants us to start using Edo instead. Go figure!! lol

There is no controversy at all. The land belongs to Awori and Ijebu as well Egun. The Bini dynasty itself ended with Akinsemoyin. The dynasty we have now was started by Olorogun Kutere whose mother was Erelu, a Bini princess and father was Ijesha. However, the Staff of Office and power of the throne remains Bini.

Akitoye, in his struggle to retain the throne, appealed to Bini for mediation. In turn when Beecroft approached Kosoko, who had deposed Akitoye for the throne, and asked for concessions, Kosoko flat out told him he had no interest and that even if he was interested he had no authority to sign a covenant untill Bini has given him the Staff of Office.....which was at the time yet to happen.


Shymmex,
Naptu is correct that the Aworis, like the Binis, are origins of Ife/Oyo.
On the chiefs, there are four classes and you typically identify them by their insignia of office.

1. Akarigbere, led by Eletu Odibo and the carry swords. They are part of the Bini heritage.

2. Idejo, led by Olumegbon and they carry the horsetail whisks, Oyo heritage. These are the land owners....very powerful and influential. Naptu mentioned their role in the ceeding of lands in 1860s. Not all of them are Awori, there are Ijebus among this class.

3. Ogalade, led by Obanikoro and they carry the fan. Bini heritage

4. Abagbon, led by Ashogbon and these are the chiefs that wear the top hat like Eyo hat. Bini, Igbomina and Nupe heritage.

1 is the executive authority or the divine essence of the King
2 is land and customs
3 is priesthood and rituals
4 is war and defense

There is a fifth arm of elite rulership and its called Ogboni. Thi is Ife heritage. They have mystical orders, not chieftaincy titles. The head, called Oluwo, is Apena. Their insignia is the Edan....a instrument that depicts the beginning and intimacy of mankind with earth.

Going back to naptu's second post where he mentioned the witnesses to the British document .....you can now see why those particular chiefs were the ones called to witness.

Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola

Vice Admiral Mike Okhai Akhigbe (Chief of General Staff). Picture was actually taken when he was a captain & Lagos State governor.

General Abdulsalam Abubakar

General Abdulsalam Abubakar presents a copy of the constitution to President Olusegun Obasanjo. Vice Admiral Akhigbe is behind them.

Vice President Atiku Abubakar

President Olusegun Obasanjo

Chief Gani Fawehinmi(SAN) holds aloft potraits of Dele Giwa. He was appearing before the Human Rights Verification/Investigation Commission (a.k.a Oputa Panel).

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha

Zaki Biam after the massacre

Chief Bola Ige (Justice Minister & Attorney General)

Dr Chuba Okadigbo (Senate President)

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (President, Nigeria Labour Congress)

Bakassi Peninsula

Niger Delta Militants

Ikeja bomb blast victims

Bellview plane crash

Chief Tony Anenih (Minister for Works)

President Olusegun Obasanjo hosting U.S first lady Laura Bush @ the Aso Rock Villa