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Coups In Nigeria •ibb’s Adc, Uk Bello, Pretended To Be With Us And Was Killed - Politics - Nairaland

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Coups In Nigeria •ibb’s Adc, Uk Bello, Pretended To Be With Us And Was Killed by JJYOU: 1:27pm On May 16, 2009
[size=16pt]•IBB’s ADC, UK Bello, pretended to be with us and was killed in crossfire — Col. Nyiam replies Major Mohammed on Orkar coup[/size]
By EMERSON GOBERT, JR.
Saturday, May 16, 2009

Col. Tony Nyiam
Photo: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section

Though he maintained a philosophical stoicism expected of a disciplined military officer, it was apparent recently that fiery Col. Tony Nyiam, the most senior officer involved in the April 1990 military coup against the government of General Ibrahim Babangida, was furious.

What provoked his spirit this time is what he saw as calculated plots to distort facts on the Major Gideon Orkar coup.

Major Abubakar Mohammed, who said he was Gen. Babangida’s Chief Security Officer (CSO), recently spoke on why the Orkar coup failed. Among the reasons he gave were that Col. Nyiam and Major Orkar, the coup leaders, disagreed on the killing of Col. U.K. Bello, Aide-de-camp to Gen. Babangida, which Abubakar alleged was carried out by Col. Nyiam. Also, the CSO said that Nyiam used inexperienced soldiers to execute the coup.

Reacting to these, Nyiam did not only shoot down Abubakar’s allegations, he even questioned his identity and competence as a CSO to Gen. Babangida.

“I find it ridiculous that a so-called Chief Security Officer could misrepresent the facts of the matter and indeed, if he was a CSO, as he claims, why was he not at his duty post at that critical moment? What is his knowledge of the standard operational procedure of a military officer in such a strategic security position? Why did he Abubakar Mohammed not get into action in time?,” Nyiam fumed.
Nyiam used the opportunity to reveal, for the first time, some secret details of that bloody coup, the specific assignments of the participants, how UK Bello was killed and why the Orkar coup failed.
It’s a Saturday Sun hot exclusive.

In a recent interview, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to ex-military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, Major Abubakar Mohammed, touted reasons the Major Gideon Orkar coup of April 1990, which you were the most senior officer involved failed. He said confusion between you and Major Orkar over the killing of Gen. Babangida’s Aide-de-camp (ADC), Lt. Col. U.K. Bello, was one of the flaws, which caused your collective failure.

He said that Orkar did not want Bello killed. How do you react to this?
Thank you for this opportunity and I thank The Sun for giving me a chance to respond to an interview that was done through The Sun. Before I start, let me just make a brief remark. Major Abubakar’s interview, in his reliance on concoction and wanton misrepresentation of event, is reminiscent of that given not too long ago by a dubious 419-nish character through a national paper. This self-styled ex-soldier claimed, in a wicked attempt to malign Major Orkar’s name and reputation, that the late officer and gentleman was a regular visitor to a hemp-smoking den in Ilorin. This is patently false. Even more revealing of the man’s utter unreliability to his claim to be close to Major Orkar’s family as a friend and yet did not know the ethnic group of the late Major’s wife. I find myself compelled to speak again and again in defence of our dear patriots’ memory in order that these various falsehood are not perceived as truth.

As to the specific response to your question, it is completely false. I did not wish my friend and course mate, Col. U.K. Bello,(may him soul rest in peace), dead. Such a disagreement with Major Gideon Orkar wouldn’t have and did not happen. Major Orkar’s area of operational responsibility (AOR), both in the plans and the execution of the plan of action was not FRCN or Dodan Barracks sector. He was not at all in Ikoyi. He was instead operating in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island. That is the second lie. The third lie: Some may have thought Major Gideon Orkar was in the FRCN on that night because of the broadcast. The broadcast was pre-recorded and Orkar was not there in person. Orkar’s operational area was in Bonny Camp; so Orkar could never have been there.

Just to show you the fourth lie, Orkar is not U.K. Bello’s mate at all. I am U. K. Bello’s mate. We are course mates in the 9th Regular Combatant Course of Nigerian Defence Academy. We went into the NDA in 1971 to 1973. Orkar came in almost a year and a half or two after us. The first lie that Orkar was close and was taking U.K. Bello’s wife to FRCN for his broadcast sounds ridiculous. To start with, the timing of the action; broadcast started long before U.K. was even woken from sleep and misled into the action, which had already been joined almost two hours after U.K. Bello was woken up from sleep and sent into operation by his boss, Gen. Babangida.

What is sad is that Gen. Babangida shouldn’t have misled U.K. Bello to go into an already charged war situation because he had already sent his scout, who had come and seen how overwhelming our force was. So, to have sent U.K. Bello to come into such operation and he ran away is the problem.
As to the lie that I killed U.K. Bello, far from it. U.K. Bello, as I’ve said over and over, came into a charged situation; he came in and purported to be part of us and in the crossfire, he was shot. I never shot a pistol or any gun on that night.

Mohammed claimed that U.K. Bello’s confidence in Orkar, who you have said was not his course mate, caused the lapses that enabled you people to gain access to Dodan Barracks. How true is this?
First of all, all are completely false. To start with, he gave the impression in that interview that Major Orkar was serving in Lagos. Orkar was actually serving in Shaki. He was commanding the Armoured Battalion. Babangida knows that. Everybody knows that he was commanding a unit outside Lagos. He was not based in Lagos and this is why I find it ridiculous that a so-called Chief Security Officer, because I don’t believe he was, could misrepresent the facts of the matter. Indeed, if he was a CSO, as he claims, why was he not at his duty post at that critical moment? Two: What is his knowledge of the standard operational procedure of a military officer in such a strategic security position? Three: Why did the Abubakar Mohammed not get into action in time? It seems to me that here was a serious dereliction of duty; that he was nowhere to be found when his presence was most required.

The way the chap has relayed the whole information does not tally because, first of all, the Chief Security Officer, as you see in the days of Mustapha and Abacha, was actually the senior. Here, U.K. Bello was the de facto Chief Security Officer; so there was no purported Chief Security Officer to the president.

He also said in the interview that you people ran into the bush along Ikoyi cemetery and that that was how the coup ended…
We fought until about I o’clock when the main battle tanks were brought against the light battle tanks, which had changed sides and were in action with us. When we were overwhelmed by the arrival of the main battle tanks, we could not resist. Otherwise, we had control of most of Lagos till about 1 o’clock. One of the flaws I’ve said over and over is our failure to have captured Ikeja cantonment, where those main battle tanks were stored. If we had captured them, as planned, we would never have had the problem.

Major Mohammed also said that the coup failed partly because you people used inexperienced soldiers, as most of them were just leaving the NDA and recruitment depots.
This is completely false! Again, the guy has no clue. If he was indeed the Chief Security Officer to Babangida, he would have been privy to the Board of Enquiry, which Gen. Abdulsalami chaired, prior to the court martial. He would have also read Gen. Ike Nwachukwu’s court martial and also would have read Gen. Y.Y. Kure’s court martial. He would have seen, from there, that his facts are completely not in tune and I’m surprised for a Chief Security Officer to be completely unaware of these facts. The action was, in the main, full of civilians. The few officers and soldiers that we mobilized for the action were experienced and competent officers and that was why they were effective. Take, for example, the actions of Major Empere and Dakolo in Ikeja cantonment. They were so effective that the commander, Bamaiyi, as I said before, had to run away into the bush and the commander of the Armoured Corps ran away into the cassava farm in the cantonment. It was later in the morning when it was realized that these chaps weren’t many in number that they were overwhelmed.

And what is the reason we were few in number? As I’ve said repeatedly, the coup was a pre-emptive action we had to take because there was a leakage and we had to take that pre-emptive action before people started rounding us up. That’s one. Secondly, all the soldiers we used were experienced soldiers. We also used, as records would show and it was public knowledge, ex-service men – people who fought the civil war and who were experienced. So, the idea of us getting inexperienced officers and recruits just shows that the so-called Major Mohammed Abubakar is speaking like a civilian. He is completely ignorant. If he was a Chief Security Officer, he would have had access to all those documents that I have mentioned.

He bluntly said you killed U.K. Bello and that you are trying to make people believe you are one of the persons who brought in democracy.
First of all, I’m no hero. The Lord Jesus Christ is the hero. If there are any mortal heroes in our action, they are Major Gideon Orkar, Major Empere, Major Charles Idede, Captain Dakolo, Lieutenants Odey, Mukoro, Akogun and all others who lost their lives fighting for the restoration of free and fair elections, transparent national census, freedom and properly elected federal democratic order to Nigeria. Those are the true heroes and among those, I would include people like Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Brigadier Ibrahim Bako, Gen. Yar’Adua, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isaac Boro, M.K.O. Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Dele Giwa, Bola Ige, Fela and Beko Kuti.

You’ve been writing some books. When are you coming out with your documented account of this coup?
A lot of people have been putting pressure on me to write this book. I’m going to give it some thought. What has happened is that for the last six years, I’ve, instead, been concentrating my efforts in trying to unravel the deep reasons we are deep in the hole we are and in that enquiry, I begin to find that it is our lack of true spirituality that is the problem. And on discovering that, I then asked myself a question. And the question led me into going back to the scriptures, to be reading the Bible and reading the Quran and other books and in so reading, the more I read, the more I realize the greatness of the Holy Bible. In that discovery, I discover that those who are supposed to be our men of God are themselves not well aware of themselves; not well aware of the real teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and of course, I will say the same for those who are leading our Muslim brothers too, because if it weren’t so the Christians and the Muslims would always be Christ-like or Mohammed-like, in the sense of living the life of peace, truth and unconditional love.

I’ve been writing and I have a column in the National Life and the two or three books, which are basics of spirituality for thinking humans, will soon be out. After that, I will then consider doing a book on the pro-democracy action.

You overtly supported the candidacy of Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. How do you take the outcome of the re-run election?
Very sad for the country and a big shame for President Yar’Adua’s government because here is a government that purports to be based on the rule of law and order. Rule of law and order, like I have written in a column once, cannot exist without free and fair elections. Clearly, what one personally witnessed in Ekiti is the greatest injustice that has been done to President Yar’Adua’s government. Take, for example, Ido/Osi. You don’t need to be a genius to know that the total votes in that area cannot amount to the figure being claimed. In fact, I would say that out of the total votes of 18,000 being claimed, I’d rather argue that 6,000 would be the true picture.

Why is it that Ido/Osi, which is one of the smallest local government areas, has three times the strength of those who voted compared to the other local governments, which are bigger? Isn’t that ridiculous? In any case, this lie will be exposed soon in the law courts. That’s one.

The other point is that the attempt, which is continuously blackmailing and using paramilitary or threatening to use military to rig election for people, has a limit. What is the difference between one who comes into power illegally, by depriving the people of their right to vote and one who comes by the use of other means? What is the difference? I think people should not be inviting inadvertently what we do not want for Nigeria. We want democracy to stay. People should not be pushed to the wall.
Re: Coups In Nigeria •ibb’s Adc, Uk Bello, Pretended To Be With Us And Was Killed by maxsiollun: 4:42am On May 18, 2009
Interesting interview. I wonder what Nigeria would be like today had the Orkar coup succeeded.

http://www.amazon.com/Oil-Politics-Violence-Nigerias-1966-1976/dp/0875867081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242360807&sr=1-1
Re: Coups In Nigeria •ibb’s Adc, Uk Bello, Pretended To Be With Us And Was Killed by teoo: 12:13am On Aug 11, 2013
Fellow Nigerians
Re: Coups In Nigeria •ibb’s Adc, Uk Bello, Pretended To Be With Us And Was Killed by Nobody: 8:14am On Aug 11, 2013
The Ido/Osi formula, up till now, I am still left in awe. Yes! If Jesus Christ comes again to preach on this earth, especially in Nigeria, our modern day pastors will crucify him again. For what he will preach will be strange to them. If coup will solve our problems, let us have the damn thing.
Re: Coups In Nigeria •ibb’s Adc, Uk Bello, Pretended To Be With Us And Was Killed by KingRabota: 7:56pm On Dec 18, 2020
Sunday 22-04-1990.

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