₦airaland Forum

For those who think the photos were photoshopped, here is video footage of Ribadu at Gani's house. Ribadu even speaks to the media, and converses with Gani's family.

http://maxsiollun./2009/09/21/video-footage-of-nuhu-ribadus-visit-to-gani-fawehinmis-family/

Shocking documentary about the risks taken by Africans trying to migrate to Europe:

http://maxsiollun./2009/09/15/europe-or-die-trying/

How Ibori Tried to Bribe Me (By Ribadu)
Submitted by maxsiollun
Today
Default How Ibori Tried to Bribe Me (By Ribadu)
http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Nex, -146/story.csp

How Ibori tried to bribe me - Ribadu

By Tolu Ogunlesi

September 14, 2009 12:24PMT
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As James Onanafe Ibori’s second and final term as the Executive Governor of Delta State, one of Nigeria’s richest, drew to an end – and with it the automatic immunity he had from criminal prosecution of any kind – he knew instinctively that he had to make a move. This was self-preservation at its best, honed by desperation.

And so on April 25, 2007, a month to the end of his tenure, he made an offer to Nuhu Ribadu, then Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

In a witness statement deposed to in August in London, as part of the ongoing investigations into Mr. Ibori’s alleged criminal activities (by the London Metropolitan Police), Ribadu narrates the events of that day.

“On the day that James said that he was going to give me money, I told my colleagues and we went to Andy Uba’s house, James (Ibori)was there and his servant or driver brought out the money from the house, in two (2) massive sacks containing US$100 dollar bills. My staff took possession of the money, I told my staff to take the money to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) where it was counted and lodged as an exhibit.”

“The money” in question added up to “exactly US$15 million” [N2.25 billion]. Andy Uba, at whose house this exchange took place, was then a special assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo. At the time the offer was made, Mr. Ribadu’s annual official salary was about US$50,000.

It was not the first meeting between Mr. Ribadu and Mr. Ibori. Indeed Mr. Ibori was no stranger to criminal investigations and law courts. His first four years as Governor were spent largely fighting allegations that he was an ex-convict and therefore ineligible to have contested for Governorship in the first place.

“I have met with James Onanafe Ibori (James) on numerous occasions prior to and during the period that he was under investigation. When I began investigating him he asked me what could be done to stop the investigation (into him). He told me that everybody was corrupt and that he was doing it because everybody else was doing it,” Mr. Ribadu’s deposition states.

Mr. Ribadu says he knew Mr. Ibori to be a “very powerful and influential figure in Nigeria,” and cites instances in the deposition. “James was very aware of how our investigation was progressing. For instance the moment that we went into a bank to obtain financial evidence, somebody would tell James about it.”

While Mr. Ibori may have lost his constitutional immunity from prosecution on May 29, 2007, the day he ceased to be Governor, he had certainly not lost any of the clout or power that his years as one of Nigeria’s most powerful men had brought him. This was soon to become clear.

In December 2007, Mr. Ribadu was asked to proceed on a 12-month course, five days after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charged Mr. Ibori to court. This course meant Mr. Ribadu had to relinquish – temporarily it seemed at that time – his position at the Commission. “The Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro made a public announcement through a national newspaper that I was going on a course at the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies in the city of Jos, Plateau State. I was not informed in advance of the fact that I was going on this course, which was for one (1) year. In fact the course was of no benefit to me, because I had taught at the Institute for three (3) years previously and I was already over-qualified for it (the course). The course was actually aimed at middle-career public officers aspiring to higher office. At that time I was still a serving police officer.”

The Medal That John Lennon Returned Because of Biafra

http://maxsiollun./2009/09/09/the-medal-that-john-lennon-returned-because-of-biafra/

Why I did not succeed Abacha as Head of State - Jeremiah Useni
Written by Nuruddeen M. Abdallah & Aliyu Machika
Sunday, 23 August 2009 03:23
You come from one of the most peaceful states in the country, described by many as a tourism haven. Plateau has suddenly become a boiling point. What is happening?



Yes, Plateau is a peaceful state, even tomorrow, and it is good for the cooling of oneself due to the favourable weather. Unfortunately, along the line, we may have offended God and that it why issues that can be amicably resolved resulted into chaos, which led to bloodshed and destruction of property. We could remember that there was a crisis between the Lantang and Wase people, but thank God, we were able to settle that.

In order to avoid the crisis that earlier happened, we established a strong Plateau Elders’ Forum where we came up with far reaching resolutions on the way forward. But, unfortunately, only five percent of the resolutions were implemented leaving behind up to 95 percent unimplemented. And, this is why we are still experiencing social and religious crisis in Plateau state.

The recent crisis happened during the local government elections when Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wanted to win everywhere, whether they are accepted or not. And people used that to destroy mosques and churches. That is purely political, but some people turned it into religious. However, despite all this, we are still working hard to ensure that peace returns to Plateau. God made all of us and therefore, nobody should feel superior to another. And, I like to say here that we need the support of the people, too, because it is a two-way traffic. That is to say, the government and the public have to work together as a team.


You made mention of a peace conference which you were a member. Which government did you summit the resolutions to?


That was done under the retired General Chris Alli (when he served as sole administrator of the state during the emergency rule). All of us came together and looked at all the recommendations made by various committees earlier and updated them and that was why they were so many. But, of course, General Chris did not stay long. We therefore, did the same during the second coming of former governor Joshua Dariye. He too, didn’t stay long as he was forcibly impeached. And, I emphasised this because that was not impeachment. He was single-handedly removed by former President Olusegun Obasanjo because he didn’t support third term, not that he committed any offence that warranted impeachment.

So, Michael Botmang came in, though he was the deputy governor and he, too, didn’t stay long. In fact, he was busy campaigning for the Jonah Jang to be governor. When Jang came in, again, whether deliberately or not deliberately, he suddenly got himself in this latest crisis I wouldn’t know, but much of the recommendations are still not implemented.


Abacha died in controversial circumstances. As one of the closest persons to him, can you relate his last moments?


As you know, a day before he died, we had a visiting President Yasser Arafat of Palestine and we saw him off. That same day, at about 6pm, when we were driving inside the city, he told me that he was not feeling fine. So, at around 7pm, he dropped me off and I told him to go and have a rest. In fact, I went back and I was doing some administrative work, when I was called upon that I was needed at the Presidential Lodge.

But to hear the news that he was dead, I was dumbfounded because you will remember that when he died there were lots of speculations. Some even said that I should be probed, which was very unfortunate. So, when I got to the Presidential Lodge, I met officers, such as the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Comassie, Abdulsalam Abubakar and others. They told me that Abacha was dead. So, I was really dumbfounded and felt very sad.


But when he died, there was rumour that some Indian girls visited him prior to his death and there was a suspicion that they may have poisoned him. What really happened?


I have been saying that this rumour isn’t true. When he died, some people insisted that an autopsy test must be conducted. He must be taken to Germany and America for the test. In my own view, he died a natural death and the reports are there. But, of course, some people just wanted to give the man a bad name; hence they were insinuating that he was a womanizer and the rest of it. But the records are there. And, who would have heard such a thing should it be a reality.


Talking about Generals, you were the most senior military officer after Oladipo Diya, who was involved in that coup saga. Why didn’t you succeed Abacha?


Even if Diya was not involved, I am still the senior. In military service, there are two types of seniority. That is seniority by protocol and seniority by military. So, if you talk of protocol, then he was senior, but by rank I am the senior. And I still remain the senior.


It was said that Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State summoned all the Generals when the issue of succession came up. What really happened?



I am not aware that he summoned the Generals because I wasnot part of those he summoned. He couldn’t have summoned me. You see, when the issue came up, the remains of General Abacha was still lying before us and so there was an argument that why can’t we go and bury him before any issue of succession came up. Now, when the discussion finally rose, there was a division of interest as some officers were of the view that military seniority should be considered while others were saying that protocol should be considered. And, if military seniority was adopted, it could have been me, but since protocol seniority was adopted then, it was Abdulsalam because he was the Chief of Defence Staff, who was next to the Head of State. So that was what happened.


How did you get the news of Abacha’s death because some people are saying that it was Al-Mustapha that broke the news to all of you after he summoned you all to the Presidential Lodge?


Like I said earlier, I was attending to some administrative matters and my phone rang and I was told that I was wanted at the Presidential Lodge. And when I went there, I was told that the Head of State was dead.


Some people still hold the view that the late Abacha was a dictator. Having worked with him closely, what is your own perception of this?


Those who said that he was a dictator do not know what they are saying. All this were the sayings of those people who felt that under Abacha’s regime they could not do what they wanted. Look at what is happening to banks today. Abacha saw it and if you remember the Failed Bank Tribunal, many bank chief executive officers and managing directors ran away from this country. People don’t know and this was over 10 years ago. And over these years Abacha still remains the topic of discussions.

And, if Abacha had remained in the system, we wouldn’t be buying a dollar for N158. If Abacha were still alive, we wouldn’t have been borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But IMF would have been borrowing from us by now. During Abacha regime, we never borrowed even a penny from anybody. In fact, all the international financial institutions closed down their offices in Nigeria because they had nothing doing. The West does not want us to progress because we were on the verge of growing to the extent that we would be helping other countries.

So, this so- called dictatorship is nothing but propaganda against him and his regime. They were using the Abacha government to hide their own misdeeds under the carpet. Look at what is happening in our democracy now were people’s votes don’t count. If they said, the first time in 1999, was due to the fact that it was organised by the military, then what about the happenings in 2003 and 2007 that turned out to be the worst. I think, there is no other forms of dictatorship worst than this kind of dictatorship where people are denied their rights to vote their leaders.

During the Abacha regime, no governor or minister was actually cut with up to N1billion, but today they are spraying billions of Naira, buying houses everywhere and cars. Abacha ordered that we should be using Peugeot and even himself was using the same Peugeot. But today we are seeing just local government chairmen driving expensive cars running into tens of millions of naira. When Abacha was alive, we deliberated and argued seriously on every matter that needed a decision in the council before arriving at the final decision. So, I know very well and without any bias that the late Abacha is better than all those that are branding him as a dictator.


10 years after Abacha’s death, the Federal Government is still talking about Abacha’s loot.


Well, those who said that there is Abacha loot should explain.


But the government alleged that it has retrieved up to $500 million from the Swiss Bank?


But the National Assembly said that it has not seen the money and how it was spent is not known to them because it was never appropriated.


After your retirement and enthronement of Obasanjo, you were fingered as the person with the highest number of property in Abuja. How correct is this?


They were more than because people said many things about me. They said I have suffered from an unknown disease. That I have over 100 plots and houses in Abuja and that I had $100 million. They even said that they had arrested a trailer full of money belonging to me and at that time the highest denomination was N20, which is madness because there is no bank I could have taken the money to. These were all said as blackmail, but I never get worried because I am sure they would never succeed. Obasanjo did what he did because Abacha was not there for him to blackmail and the next person to him was me and that was why he engaged in all that he did.


But they said you have property more than anybody in Abuja?


Then, where are the properties? Go to my house, you will find only a simple building. But there are ministers during Obasanjo who have built houses both in Abuja and their home towns worth billion of Naira. The thing is that when you decide to help people, then someone somewhere, would begin to level you as the wealthiest person on earth, which is not true.


One of the issues that attracted criticisms to the regime of the late Abacha was his alleged transmutation to a civilian president. And you, being his closest associate were also accused of trying to transform into the Mayor of Abuja.


This is very interesting. When you look from Day One when FCT was created, it was suggested that it should be governed by a mayor. Somehow, the past governments, whether military or civilian, were not able to establish the office of the mayor. They prefer to make it a ministry so that they can control the money that goes there. But if you are a mayor, then you are independent. That is why even the budget of the FCT might be approved by the Head of State. We have council chairmen, but because there were no mayor to swear in, they are sworn in by the National Assembly.

So, it has been like that very unfortunately. And, that is why I made sure that we follow what the law establishing the office has said. As at that time, there was only one first class chief in the whole territory and that was in Abaji. All his colleagues were third class chiefs because they were part of Kwara State before Kogi was carved out of it. I made a proposal which sought to address the matter, where we now have different classes of chiefs in the FCT which was eventually approved by the late Abacha. So, that was the foresight we had and that was why we wanted to have a mayoral position for the FCT so that it can be fully independent.


What is your relationship with Macosa dance?


What they don’t know is that if I am attached so much to Macosa dance as they said, then what time did I have to go to work. When I was the FCT minister, I used to go to my office between 6-7am. Since I know people come to office by 8am, I always wait until 8am before I begin to call my directors. Anytime a file is brought to me I check the date it left the permanent secretary’s office. And if the file left his office seven days after it went in, I asked him why. So, people did not think about time I have to do all this, if they only think that I always socialize with all my time. But yes, I enjoy Macosa dance because they say that work, work without play makes Jack a dull boy.


But do you like the name Jerry-boy?


Yes, I like it because it makes me feel much younger. When you said Jerry-boy, I begin to wonder whether Jeremiah is still in his 30s.


Now that you are in politics, do you consider going for an elective position?


No, I don’t have such consideration yet. But, of course, I cannot overrule it. That is not impossible. But I did not consider such yet.



How do you feel coming from an area with the highest number of Generals? And why can’t these Generals call the politicians to order over the crisis bedevilling Plateau?


There are two things involved. One, we are not selfish and we have to serve the people. Secondly, it defends on their capacity to accept what we offer them for peace. I think, whoever you find doing one thing or the other, is only protecting an interest. So, I believe we are doing our best in that direction and we would continue.

On the second part of the question, yes, we are fighters and we are religious people and we like to impart knowledge into the people. In my area, we get soldiers, farmers and teachers. Those are the main things we occupied. Till today, we have not had a Commissioner of Police because in Lantang, we believe that police is meant for women and not a job for a man. Check the records we haven’t even gotten an Assistant Commissioner.

We have soldiers and farmers too, because you have to defend your farm. And teachers too, yes because in our religion, we believe that if you are a teacher you are already on your way to heaven. So people said we have large number of Generals but we are never Head of State. When I was governor of the old Bendel state, people will tell you what I did and that is why 20 years later they called me and gave a chieftaincy title.


Do you have any regret in life?


As a Christian, I shouldn’t say I have any regret. But as a human being, I will say yes, I regret the death of my wife. However, I am not asking God why. When I joined the military as a boy-soldier at the age of 14, I never thought that I will retire from the service as a three- star general. I never knew that I will survive all this wars and coups. And I retired honourably because nobody mentioned my name for retirement. I am still eating and I have an office, whether good or bad. And I go wherever I want and I am not begging. So I thank my God.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8233980.stm

Nigerian 'trained in Afghanistan'

Abdulrasheed Abubakar was paraded by police to make his statement

[B]A member of the Nigerian Islamist sect behind a deadly uprising in July has confessed to receiving military training in Afghanistan, police say.
[/B][B]The member of the sect known locally as Boko Haram and Taliban said he was paid $500 to do the training and promised $35,000 (£22,000) on his return.[/B]

The uprising in northern Nigeria left some 700 people dead, mostly militants.
If confirmed it would be the first proven link between Islamists in the oil-rich country and Afghanistan.

Local people called the group Taliban because of its radical beliefs.
For years Western diplomats have feared an al-Qaeda sleeper cell might launch attacks on oil infrastructure in Nigeria, which is an increasingly large supplier to the US.

Weapons cache
The man, 23-year-old Abdulrasheed Abubakar, was paraded before journalists in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, where the sect was based and which saw the worst violence.

It was the mood of Mohammed Yusuf's teaching - the energy that helped me to join him

Is al-Qaeda working in Nigeria?
The police also displayed a large cache of weapons and bomb-making equipment recovered from suspected Boko Haram members recently arrested in the northern cities of Yola and Maiduguri.

The BBC's Bilkisu Babangida said Mr Abubakar appeared confident and not at all nervous in front of the journalists.

He explained that he had converted to Islam seven months ago and decided to join the sect after buying the teachings of Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf on cassette.

"It was the mood of Mohammed Yusuf's teaching - the energy that helped me to join him," he told the BBC.

[B]He met Yusuf two weeks after finding the sect in Maiduguri and was asked by the Boko Haram leader to go to Afghanistan, he said.
"I spent three months in Afghanistan. I was trained as a bomb specialist."

[/B]Mr Abubakar said he was supposed to train five people on his return, but when he did not receive his money he escaped.
He said that during the uprising in July, when Boko Haram militants, armed mainly with machetes, launched the simultaneous attacks on police stations in different parts of the north, he was in jail in Yola.

After the uprising had been suppressed, many beheaded bodies were found in the sect's headquarters, including at least three Christian preachers and the second in command of the military operation.
Hundreds of sect members were also killed as the security forces retaliated and controversy surrounds the death of Yusuf, who was shot after his arrest.
Police say Yusuf was killed in a shoot-out when he tried to escape, but human rights groups say it was a summary execution.

The sect said it was fighting against Western education and believed Nigeria's government was being corrupted by Western ideas.
It wanted to see Islamic law imposed across the country.

Naijaking, do you have the book yet? Please do let me have your feedback when you have finished reading it.

naijaking1:
Good job Max. I can't wait for my copy of the complete book to arrive from Amazon. Once again, thanks for an apperently well written and researched book on an important chapter of Nigerian history.

Afaukwu, many thanks for posting this review.

Astute points Igbanibo. Maj-Gen (as he then was) Dogonyaro made a strategic impact when commanding ECOMOG in Liberia. It was strange that IBB withdrew him so quickly, and the ECOMOG mission never had the same dynamism after that.

Col Shuwa has been commended many times for his textbook command of 1 Div during the civil war. Such a shame that a disciplined and conventional Sandhurst trained officer such as he was not permitted to command the army.

Igbanibo:
For me,

Gen. Ironsi in the Congo

Col. Shuwa and his 1st Division in the Nigerian Civil war.

(Adekunle was all flash, and Obasanjo is an engineer for Ch_ _ _t sake.)

Lt. Col. Etuk of 3MCD, who fought valiantly, while under seige.

In more recent times, Brig. Joshua Dogonyaro in the early 90s in Liberia. If he had been allowed to stay longer than the 5 months that he was there for, and provided a few more troops, the Liberian conflict would have ended then and there. That man didn't play around. Only IBB knows why he withdrew him.

The rest of the Ecomog commanders didn't do that much militarily, most like Kupolati, Olurin, Inenienger were more diplomat/soldiers, than anything else.

What is there left for the army to do? How about suppressing attacks by murderous subversive sects that behead preachers, kill innocent people and try to attack police and army HQs?

Once again, it is NOT age that determines promotion. Normal promotion cycles are every 5 years but officers are also required to attend courses, and pass exams before being promoted. After being commissioned from the Nigerian Defence Academy, officers have to attend further courses at the Command and Staff College in Jaji (for mid ranking officers) and the National Defence College in Abuja (senior officers). They cannot be promoted till they attend these courses and pass their promotion exams.

Major Ademoyega states in his book Why We Struck at page 51 that the Majors not only informed Fajuyi of the Jan 1966 coup but that Fajuyi actually gave them operational ideas on how to execute the coup. Ademoyega was one of the "5 Majors" who planned the Jan 1966 coup.

There is a myth that Fajuyi organised an all arms battle group course as a rehearsal of the coup. This is not true. True, Fajuyi was in charge of the course but (a) the course was organised by Army HQ, and (b) only 2 or 3 of the dozens of soldiers on that course took part in the Jan 1966 coup (Gbulie included).

Ironsi had nothing to do with the Jan 1966 coup. He was actually the person who quashed it.

During the 1964 election crisis, a dispute arose between Balewa and Zik. Zik called in the military and police chiefs to remind them of their oath of loyalty to him as president.

ogajim:
This can't be right!
From what one can find on this subject, both Ironsi and Fajuyi were passively involved in the January '66 coup, heck Zik invited the army a couple of years prior after refusing for a while to swear in Balewa due to the vote rigging that NPC was alleged to have carried out. Didn't Fajuyi organize and instruct the "training" class from where the coup details were ironed out? I have a copy of Adenkunle's book, lots of confusion among even the participants or those who ought to know it seems. God help us all.

This is not pretence/a make believe story Naijaking. Several objective witnesses observed this phenomena and have chronicled it. Even Robin Luckham mentioned it in his book on the Nigerian Military. Wolpe and Melson also named northern soldiers who did this in their book Nigeria: Modernization and the Politics of Communalism.

naijaking1:
LOL
Just like an Hausa boy posting articles as Aloy~Emeka

I think the plucking of Nzeogwu's eyes had to do with mystical beliefs. Probably whomever did it somehow thought they'd acquire the warrior attributes of Nzeogwu after doing so. Recall that some of the Liberian rebels engaged in cannibalism believing that eating their enemies would transfer their enemies strengths to them.

Another strange phenomenon during the July 1966 counter coup in Nigeria was northern soldiers addressing themselves by the names/ranks of Igbo soldiers they murdered. They maintained the pretence that they could "become" the men they killed.

bawomolo:
most likely a repayment for his involvement in the first coup.

tpia.:
@ bolded

interesting!


corpse mutilation is a sign of secret society involvement, I think. At least that's what I heard.

The normal promotion cycle is one promotion per five years. Retirement is usually at age 55 or after 35 years service. However officers can be retained beyond that age/service years at the pleasure of the govt.  For example the Nigerian General Martin Luther Agwai is currently the commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur. He is 59 yo and has been in service for nearly 40 years.  Lt-General Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor is the Military Adviser to the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations at U.N. headquarters in New York.  He has already been in the army for over 36 years and is 58 years old.

However the FG has the right to prematurely retire military officers if it wants to. They are after all paid by the FG.

MUZBO:
If not because they've politicized everything, why would you be on a rank for more than 4 years. And didn't those officers sign papers that would have defined their retirement to a particular age rather than a particular rank. . .I mean I don't gerrit!!

Many of Nzeogwu's friends fought for the federal army. Most of his friends were northerners. Even people like Danjuma, Hassan Katsina etc knew him very well. OBJ was abroad while the an 1966 coup was being hatched. He arrived back in Nigeria just a few days before the coup was execited.

Soldiers in Nigeria often change loyalty. Some of the soldiers who assisted Ifeajuna and Nzeogwu in their coup were involved in the northern revenge coup 6 months later. Then 9 years later these same officers overthrew the man the brought to power in 1966 (Gowon). The same officers overthrew Shagari in 1983 and Buhari in 1985. See how soldiers seemingly on the same side can turn on each other?

tpia.:
thanks.

I do find it strange that he was that close to Nzeogwu who led a revolution and fought for the Biafran side, yet he (OBJ) fought on the Nigerian side and also managed to not be openly involved Nzeogwu's coup?

maybe I'm getting confused but something seems fishy.

I could also have an overactive imagination, I guess.

Tpia:

1) OBJ was a very good friend and former room mate of Maj Nzeogwu. OBJ was in Kaduna when the Jan 1966 coup occured.

2) During the civil war he commanded the 3rd Marine Commando division and it was he who led the decisive breakthrough that ended the war.

3) He did not arrest IBB or any other "famous coup plotter".

4) After the civil war he became head of the army's engineers unit.

tpia.:
thanks.



I just wonder where OBJ was and what he was doing from 1965 through 1971.

or before and after all the turmoil/s.

In the Abacha regime, Lt-Gen Diya was the Chief of General Staff (i.e. deputy to Abacha - akin to a Vice President). Maj-Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar was the Chief of Defence Staff (i.e.the number 3). Diya was arrested in December 1997 and tried for coup plotting. Thus he was removed from his position as CGS. No new CGS was appointed, so Abdulsalam effectively became the second highest ranking member of the govt in Diya's absence.

Abacha died in June 1998. When he died there was no obvious successor because the CGS/deputy Diya was in jail. The leading candidates were Maj-Gen Abdulsalam Abubakar - who was now effectively head of the armed forces in Abacha and Diya's absence, Lt-Gen Jerry Useni (Minister of the FCT), and Lt-Gen Mohammed Balarabe Haladu (Minister of Industries). Both Useni and Haladu had senior rank to Abdulsalam but neither was in the military chain of command because they were serving as cabinet ministers.

So it was a question of superior rank versus superior appointment. In the end Abubakar became head of state in succession to Abacha and was promoted to four star General over the heads of Diya, Useni and Haladu.

oyinda.:
ah thanks guys.
i really was confused about what position he held in naija politics. because some other guy was president after abacha not him. abubakar or abdulsallam i think? some name like that.
so i guess he cried because his coup failed. lol that's epic

Abacha was most certainly not "a contemporary of both Ironsi and Fajuyi". Ironsi first enlisted in the army as a private in 1942, and was commissioned as an officer in 1949. To put things into perspective, Abacha was still a baby when Ironsi joined the army. He was less than one year old when Ironsi enlisted! Fajuyi first enlisted as an NCO in 1943 and was commissioned in 1954.

Abacha was not commissioned until 1963 by which time Ironsi was already a Brigadier and Fajuyi a Lt-Col.

gReenmAn:
@ nues aweso

You seem to forget we still have some of these " first generation Nigerian soldiers who were trained in the UK" among us.
I never heard OBJ, Babangida, TY Danjuma et al speak such flowery english.
Certainly not Abacha who was also a contemporary of both Ironsi and Fajuyi.

No doubt, such Shakespearean dialogue was concocted by trained professionals.

By the way I see no need for the attempt at re writing this part of history, because the majority of
right thinking and progressive Nigerians laready regard Fajuyi and Ironsi as heroes.

Laudate, yes o, I don enter NL too! Anyway, the killers of Ironsi and Fajuyi are well known. Some of them are still alive and witnesses to the crime are alive too. Ironsi and Fajuyi were murdered by two northern lieutenants and NCOs. Since I don't want to give my book away for free on NL, you can read more about Ironsi and Fajuyi's last moments (including their killers) in my book.

laudate:
Max Siollun, you don waka comot from Nigeria village square come enter here??

Anyway, na small question I wan ask you - did William Walbe kill Fajuyi & Ironsi?

Guys this was 1990s coup crazed, military governed Nigeria where the army was deeply politicised. Diya and Adisa were not the only ones who surbordinated themselves to junior officers.

The man they wept and knelt before was Major Hamza Al Mustapha - Abacha's Chief Security Officer and the dreaded head of the Strike Force (a personal killing outfit responsible for the murders of Rewane, Kudirat etc). Any wise person was careful and moderate around Mustapha. He wielded power over life and death.

Bombay, thanks for posting articles from my website here. But please give credit/attribution to the author when you copy and paste my work elsewhere. Many thanks.

http://maxsiollun./2008/08/02/isaac-adaka-boro-and-niger-delta-militancy/

Thanks for posting this. The anniversaries of Ironsi/Fajuyi's murder always seem to pass without mention. They are forgotten heroes and pioneers.

A little note for posterity though, [B]Fajuyi did not give his life for Ironsi. It seems he was a target of the northern mutineers all along and would have been killed with Ironsi regardless.[/B] It was the Western Region publication "Fajuyi The Great" that started the myth that Fajuyi "chose to die with Ironsi". The myth was later embellished in subsequent publications. One of the most ridiculous of which was Fajuyi: The Martyred soldier, by Sanmi Ajiki. Ajiki claimed that Fajuyi told Ironsi: [I]"I make bold to declare to you that, I am with you soul, spirit and body. And mark my words, whatever happens to you today, happens to me. I am your true friend, dear J.U.T like the dove to the pigeon, and by the grace of our good God, so will I humbly yet proudly remain till the very end."[/I] According to Ajiki, Ironsi replied [I]"Yes! Francis, I retain my absolute confidence in you. I have never for once doubted your integrity."[/I] That might sound nice and heroic for their family members, but the accounts given by the soldiers that were present suggest that no such fluffy dialogue took place.

William Walbe (one of the officers that led Fajuyi and Ironsi to their death in Ibadan) publicly confirmed in an interview that Fajuyi was destined to share Ironsi's fate and that they (the northern mutineers) wanted Fajuyi dead because they were convinced he was an ally of the Janaury 1966 Majors and helped them plan their coup. The interview is quoted in Gowon's biography entitled "Gowon: Biogrpahy of a Soldier Statesman".

Lt-Gen Danjuma later corroborated Walbe's account in an interview with a Nigerian army civil war historical team. Danjuma went even further than Walbe and said that [B]the soldiers that killed Ironsi and Fajuyi could not stand Fajuyi. They felt he deserved to die even more than Ironsi.[/B]

Yesterday was the anniversary of Ironsi and Fajuyi's deaths.

To moderator Richyblack, I have noticed that every time I post, the post is deleted within a couple of minutes. Is there something wrong? Have I violated a forum rule?

State creation is actually very expensive. It actually amplifies financial problems because federal account derivation decreases for each state every time new states are created. The more states there are, the less money each state gets - because there are more states to share the money amongst, not to talk of the extra Governors, Deputy Govs, LGA chairmen, Senators etc from each state that have to be paid out of public funds.

For those saying he is the "first" Igbo IGP, his predecessor Mike Okiro was also Igbo!

It is a noble idea but I am not sure it can be financed in a country with 150million people, and many of whom don't pay tax.

This is a long interview but an explosive one with some shocking claims. If you don't have the patient to read it all, read the bolded parts.


IBB killed Abiola, Abacha, Idiagbon, Ige and Elewi

Jul 24, 2009

The Moshood Fayemiwo Interview. Part II

- IBB killed Abiola, Abacha, Idiagbon, Ige and Elewi
- Abacha died of spiked viagra
- SSS kept Abiola's sex tape
- Abiola kept Samuel Doe's money in Swiss Bank
- Abiola funded 1985 Coup with $10 million
- Nigeria would break up soon

Two weeks ago we served you the first part of the no holds barred interview with pro democracy journalism icon, MOSHOOD FAYEMIWO. We now present the concluding part of the damning revelations concerning leading political and military personalities and landmark events during the darkest days of Nigeria under military dictatorship. The interview was anchored by our managing editor, OLADIMEJI ABITOGUN. Excerpts:

Why would you consider it fair to pin all the mis-governance on Hausa/Fulani area. You know other individuals from other tribes and parts of Nigeria are guilty as well…

People who are students of history, especially those who have studied the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy, if you have read a book by J.F.A. Ade – Ajayi, Africa in the Nineteenth Century, it is about the history, explained the history of Hausa State, talks of the arrival of one Baya Jida from the Middle East who married the Queen of Daura. I think from the present Katsina State.

And between them they had seven Hausa sons who are called the Banza Bakwai. And then there were seven other illegitimate sons of same man. The seven illegitimate sons later formed the fourteen Hausa States. Daura, Katsina, Zau Zau (Zaria), Kano, Rano and Biram, Gwandu

The Fulanis arrived in the Northern area and conquered the Hausas. Hausas and Fulani had historically been separate people. I studied African History at the graduate level and learned from respectable and unbiased professors; the best in the field. It is important that people understand this story, and eventually, the Fulani legitimized their power over the Hausas and imposed their religion and ways of life on the Hausas. Historically, Hausas were not Moslems; their religion was what they called Maigazuya or Maigazurra kind of religion. This comprised magic, witchcraft and all the rest, mixed with Islam. The Fulanis came and emasculated the Hausas, changed their religion and even their ways of life. Today, these Fulanis who speak Fulfude are in Northern Nigeria. They became Hausa-Fulani and are determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic enclave. This is the war that Chief Obafemi Awolowo fought to resist; we are still fighting it today in Nigeria. People do not know what is happening and that is why I said those who are ruling Nigeria, who are destroying that nation, you can count them, a handful of them. What they do is that they believe that political, religious and economic powers in Nigeria belong to them. They see others as second-class citizens, they are full of hubris. The way they operate is to plant Emirs in even non-Moslem and non-Hausa-Fulani towns and villages. Can you believe that Lafia in Nassarawa State with just a handful of Hausa-Fulani should be governed by an Emir? I served in Ilorin, Kwara State during my NYSC and could count the number of Hausa-Fulani resident in that city yet they are ruled by an Emir.

While we, in the South are running after money, not yet able to put our acts together, these people have perfected how they are going to rule Nigeria forever. Yorubas, Ibos,Ibibios, Efik, Benin, Kalabaris, Itshekiri and the rest in the South should wake up otherwise our children and grandchildren will curse us in our graves after we have gone. They will ask just as my children are asking me now in America; Daddy, what did you do? Are you just watching?. There is discrimination in Nigeria to the level that since the 1960’s no person outside the Hausa – Fulani oligarchy has ruled Nigeria. The two periods under southern leadership was more or less accidental.

The death, the assassination of Muritala Mohammed paved the way for Obasanjo to rule in the 1976 and after a democratically acclaimed election was held in 1993, the only person who could represent the genuine aspirations of Nigerians, M.K.O. Abiola was stopped by the oligarchy. They brought their man, Olusegun Obasanjo, to rule again. Between 1976-1979, Obasanjo was not even ruling; the power really was in the hands of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the elder brother of the one there now; Umaru. The late General Olufemi Olutoye once narrated a story in his autobiography where he said, immediately Obasanjo was sworn into office in 1976 following Muritala Muhammed’s death, he came to Doddan Barracks and explained the situation of other ethnic tribes to him in federal appointments and the need to redress anomaly. He left after his discussions with Obasanjo and few hours later, Obasanjo set for him. The late Gen. Musa Yar’Adua, the then Chuef of Staff Supreme Headquarters was already waiting and in the latter’s presence, Obasanjo asked him to repeat what he had just said few hours earlier. He, Olutoye repeated what he told Obasanjo. The following morning, Olutoye’s retirement was announced on the FRCN. It was so bad in the 1970s down till the 1990s that some Southerners in the Nigerian Military had to change their names to Mohammed, Umaru and even converted into Islam to get promotion. I knew those Southerners who left the Nigerian Army out of frustration because of this nonsense. The fact of the matter is there is no Nigerian Army, what we have is Northern Nigerian Army. We cannot continue like this as a people, Southerners must assert their legitimate rights in their own fatherland or we go our separate ways, period.

Do you know I have more rights as a Nigerian-American here in the United States than my native land Nigeria?

So look at Nigerian history, by next year, we shall be fifty years old as a nation. No non-Northerner has always earned a genuine mandate for the aspirations of our people. They control the military; this is the reality, the internal colonization of the country that I am talking about.

The southerners must sit down and organize and say that it is either they are accepted as equals or everybody must go his own way.


What is the real legitimate reason for the annulment of June 12 elections? What do you know in view of the fact that some people claim IBB had intelligence, almost incontrovertible that Abiola was a CIA operative?

Some analysts say Babangida was pressurized, this and that, in annulling that election. That was hogwash. A person, a rogue, a coup plotter like Babangida, a former drug baron like Babangida, could not be pushed by anybody. They even said what they wanted you journalists to believe that some officers in the military put a gun to his head. That did not happen. Which officer could do that so that he could annul the election? These are the rubbish they are feeding Nigerians. It is so sad that those who called themselves leaders appear on television and lie barefaced to Nigerians and we believe them. These are not men and women of honor, I tell you. They lie, they steal and they kill. Since 1960, the act of governance, administration has always been in secrecy. There are two stories to every government decision and policy in Nigeria as I have pointed out to you. Two levels of information exist in Nigeria, to create a façade and avoid public scrutiny. Political actors give us two stories, the official story and the unofficial story. And the Nigerian press goes with the official story. They are part and parcel of the official. That organized conspiracy was elevated to official pastime during the disastrous years called the IBB years. You know they always appeared on television or during their media chats with these ludicrous epithets; “We do not run our government on the pages of newspapers.” Remember?

Even the so-called Obasanjo “elected government, you hear them telling Nigerians “oh this government is not run on the pages of newspapers”.

Why should government not be run on the pages of newspapers? In a democracy? That is why you will know that there are two versions of stories. The truth, which only few people would be privy to are the official stories that they use the media to push out to the Nigerian Public. That was what happened on June 12.
[b]
We all know that June 12 is the ultimate culmination of the 1985 coup of survival which Babangida staged for self – preservation.

Let us be frank, the man did not want to leave the place. He was coming out with the idea of diarchy. He sent people like Mukoro Tony Nyiam to study the idea in Egypt, Santiago in Chile, and an admixture of civilian and military leadership. That was what the man was planning until Abiola decided to contest. Of course you know the story of how Abiola emerged as the candidate of the then Social Democratic Party S.D.P. Abiola was able to emerge as the presidential flag bearer as the SDP in Jos as late Major – General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua discovered that, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe was pealing away votes from Atiku Abubakar for Abiola.

The forces of Atiku and Abiola teamed up and worked for Abiola’s victory. What they did was that six people met at the residence of Ambassador Yaya Kwade on Ibrahim Taiwo Avenue in Jos, M.K.O. Abiola, his first son, Kola, Dr. Jonathan Zwingina (later became a senator), Major General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua himself, Atiku Abubakar and Yaya Kwande. And they agreed, and Abiola himself appended his signature that the forces of Atiku Abubakar will co-operate and that when Abiola emerged as the flag bearer that he would make Atiku Abubakar his running mate. Abiola agreed. He became the flag bearer of the SDP.
[/b]
[b]While they were there, because we have to be frank, it was not actually a primary, for those of us who were there, Abiola bought the ticket, because of his money power. Where Ambassador Kingibe was spending N500, N2, 000 to buy delegates, Abiola upped the stakes to N10, 000, N20, 000 per delegate. Unknown to Abiola, Babangida’s agents were filming everything live. They captured everything on tape. For example, Abiola gave N10m cash to Lamidi Adedibu. And the late Adedibu was captured on tape with wads of Naira notes shouting to Oyo State delegates “Eyin ara Ibadan, Owo Abiola ti de”, meaning “Folks from Ibadan, Abiola’s cash has landed” (laughs) openly. You know the man was a political jobber, half-illiterate. And suddenly, delegates for Atiku and Kingibe moved and switched to Abiola. Abiola instructed Kola to increase the stakes to N20, 000 against N500 from the others. It was cash and carry for Abiola. They were all caught on tape and that was the tape that Babangida sent to the State Department here in the United States to justify the annulment among other reasons

[/b]So all the trips to Abuja where he allegedly accused Abiola of operating for CIA….

No. He did not even give that reason. It was his crony, Sani Abacha, I am coming back to that issue, and it was Obasanjo who prompted Sani Abacha to stage the November 24, 1993 coup.

[b]There were basically three reasons Babangida annulled the election.

First, the man didn’t just want to go. He wanted diarchy. That was why Olumilua, Adeleke, Ebri, Osoba, Otedola ruled with him for two years.

Secondly, there were deep – seated animosities between him and Abiola. Most Nigerians do not want to hear this that the money kept in Abiola’s account through an arrangement brokered by Babangida was one of the reasons that caused the problem. And of course when Maryam Babangida went to Beijing in China, there were reports that Abiola slept with the woman, [/u]which no one knew. [/b]Whether it was a lie, it was going to be a lie. These were the personal reasons. Babangida’s personal self entrenchment and the betrayal of each other over Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe’s money.

Doe was looking for where to keep the money he had stolen from the Liberian economy. He was looking for a place to keep the money for his wife Nancy and his children. So he approached Babangida. And Babangida told him “hey, I’m president here and I don’t want to put the money in my account. We have a friend who we can use”.

That was how he suggested Abiola and of course, Abiola had investment in Liberia. So the money was paid into Abiola’s Swiss Account.

After Doe died, Nancy, his wife came all the way from London to Nigeria. No Nigerian newspaper, most editors knew, but did not want to carry it. None of them could carry the story, the plan was for…. Babangida had suggested to Doe to go on exile at the thick of the Liberian war. He felt he could go to Saudi Arabia. The late Idi Amin also came to Nigeria and stayed in Sheraton Hotel during that period. Idi Amin called and advised Doe not to go on exile, that with timing, the war may eventually favor Doe. Idi Amin was the one who told him not to go on exile.

The Saudi authorities were ready to take Doe. As it eventually turned out, Doe was killed by Yormie Johnson’s soldiers. So his family, Doe’s families were now in need and they came to Nigeria to ask for what their bread winner had kept for them. Babangida welcomed them, and then he sent for Abiola. Abiola replied that, well the money was paid into the late Simbiat Abiola, his first wife’s account. And that he wasn’t the person holding that account, that it was Kola Abiola and that Babangida should call his first son, Kola. So Babangida felt insulted that this was a friend of both of them who was in need so that he could take care of his family and Abiola was saying all those kind of things. You know how I was able to authenticate the story? Through the late Shehu Musa Yar ‘Adua, because Chris Mamman, who eventually became Chief Press Secretary to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar took me to General Yar’ Adua’s office in Victoria Island. Nancy Doe, the wife of late Samuel Doe of Liberia is in London, you guys should track her down for an interview.[b] Nigerian newspapers don’t have the resources in the first place to pursue that kind of story and secondly, no editor in Nigeria will dare venture to publish such a story. I told you that Babangida has corrupted virtually all of them either directly or indirectly. It’s just so bad that most editors are on the payroll of the SSS while some are moles in the newsroom. Some editors have to be looking over their shoulders when they are planning stories because you just don’t know who would betray you to the soldiers in power. [/b]I doubt whether that culture has changed much. As I have said, we have the finest and the best journalists in the world but the institutional obstacles in media houses are formidable. Nigerian Journalists are poorly paid, there is no insurance and the tools are not there for them to work.

Was Mr. Mamman there during this conversation?

Yes. It was General Yar’ Adua who gave us the story. And he also said it that when Abiola ran into trouble, that he said, that he, Yar’ Adua had warned Abiola that “are you sure”, he was telling Chris Mamman that he told Abiola “are you sure that our friend Ibrahim was ready to leave?” That was what he said he asked him when he wanted to run for the presidency. “I wanted to be president too, the man banned me. Are you sure you would not be banned?” That even if you win the election, are you sure that Babangida was ready to go?” All that with the Doe offer…” and Abiola assured him that he too had done a lot of favors for Babangida in the past, he was the one who gave him money when he struck in 1985, that the two of them had extended favors to each other, and that he did not see a reason why Babangida would not want him to succeed him. This was from the mouth of Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua in the presence of Chris Mamman. But most newspapers would not carry this story in Nigeria.

Babangida had been saying that Abiola would not last more than sixty days, ninety days. No soldier, no person put any gun on his head.


Have you met Babangida in person before?

I wouldn’t say that I met him one on one. The first time I saw him was in 1985, while I worked with Concord. One of Abiola’s wives had a baby and they were having the naming ceremony. Virtually all the top editors of Concord titles were in Abiola’s house that night at Moshood Abiola crescent at Ikeja; that was the first time I saw Babangida afar. In fact it was at that ceremony, the naming ceremony, that the details of the August 27, 1985 coup were fine tuned. That was where they planned everything. That was where Abiola released the money for the boys…

H[b]ow much?

Ten million U.S. dollars cash. They wanted money. Babangida and his boys never knew whether the coup would succeed or not. And they needed money. There was no other safe meeting point were Babangida and Abiola would have a conversation. Rafindadi, the National Security Organization, NSO’s boss, had already bugged Babangida’s telephone lines. They used the innocent child’s naming ceremony as a cover – up. Duro Onabule was there that day. I think it was Ebenezer Obey that entertained, there were lots of musicians. I think Sikiru Ayinde Barrister also played that night. So while guests were in front of Abiola’s house, the military guys who came with Babangida, Abubakar Umar and the others retired to the back of Abiola’s house. It was in that place that they struck. They had chosen October 1 st, 1985 as I told you before but acted faster. Buhari is still alive; he should confirm or deny what I am saying… They knew the details. I am issuing that challenge. Up till today Buhari has not spoken on why he was toppled. He should speak out. Top editors can corroborate what I am telling you now. They know it. May be they’re waiting for Babangida to die and then they would come out with their “exclusive.”[/b]

You promised me you would reveal the story behind Abacha’s coup and how and the way he died.

Oh yes. Not only that, let me also tell you how Abiola died. When Babangida was chased out, his tail between his legs, or whatever he chose to call it, “stepping aside”, he had lost the initiative, right? They put up the contraption called ING (Interim National Government). He knew that his friend, the Chief of Army Staff and the Defense Minister, Sani Abacha would stage the coup. There were some young Army Officers led by Col. Bello Fadile, who wanted to stage a coup, to pre-empt Abacha’s take over. Those guys went to Ota farm to inform Obasanjo. Are you listening to me? Those guys were between the ranks of majors and colonels. They were young guys who wanted to stage a coup and remove Shonekan. We don’t know whether they were planning to revalidate June 12. They went to Obasanjo at Ota Farm, Ogun State to tell him and when they left, Obasanjo wrote a personal letter to Abacha. When Obasanjo saw that the boys, he knew they were radicals. He knew that if those guys succeeded in their coup, there would be a lot of things that would happen in Nigeria which he did not like. So he wrote a personal letter to Abacha to do something about it. And that was more or less a coded way of telling Abacha to stage a coup. It was that letter that Abacha used to rope Obasanjo into the coup saga later on when Obasanjo snubbed Abacha. That letter got him in jail.

Abacha had also sworn to have his day against Obasanjo for spiting him by declining a ride in the presidential plane with him to Mandela’s inauguration in South Africa. He invited Obasanjo for a ride. Obasanjo said he would not be going. When Abacha staged his own coup in November 17, 1993 because of the personal letter of instigation from Obasanjo, Obasanjo refused the presidential ride. When Abacha got to South Africa, he saw Obasanjo and he said “ha ha”. When he came back, he had this attitude like Idi Amin that “if you are not my friend, you must be my enemy. And if you are my enemy, you must die”. (Laughs) So he got the message that this guy was trying to avoid him and that was why he did not ride with him to South Africa. That Obasanjo’s snobbery was what landed him in trouble. He was double-dealing. Consulted for Abacha in secret and avoided and distanced himself in public. For Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, he got into trouble for sponsoring a motion calling for return-to-civil rule in 1998 at the so-called Constitutional Conference set up by Abacha. He went to the NUJ Lighthouse to address a press conference and later that day, as Abacha’s hit men were after him, he jetted out of the country to Saudi Arabia. Three weeks later when he returned to Nigeria, Abacha ordered he should be picked up and you know the rest of the story.

So, how did Abacha die?

Remember there are two story lines to events in Nigeria. The official one that they dish out to you journalists which they use to hide the real truth, and the unofficial one which is the real thing but which would not be published in the newspapers. That is the real story which is usually unofficial. It still happens today. Remember how they desperately denied your story that Yar’ Adua was sick? You see that the man still looks very sickly. You cannot rely on government spokesmen or their ubiquitous press releases.

They want Nigerians and the international community to think that Abacha died in the hands of two Indian prostitutes. It is a lie. I was kidnapped and kept by the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, at that time. You know being detained by DMI allows one has a peep into the real happenings in Nigeria. That is the secret of government. The DMI is where most intelligence stories come out.

This is the way Abacha died. Abacha was eliminated by the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy. There were three reasons why they took him out. When he came into power and removed the ING and refused to revalidate June 12 election, the Northerners were happy. While he was clamping the NADECO people and was hounding most of us in the radical media and threatened to destroy and kill people in Lagos, the oligarchy and followers were happy and cheering him.

But when Abacha decided to attack Yar’ Adua by administering toxic injection on him and the man was killed inside Abakaliki prison, killing the head of the Kaduna Mafia like that, the Northerners now knew too late that Abacha was not fighting for the oligarchy. It was the death of Musa Yar’ Adua that opened their eyes; that this so called Abacha had a personal agenda.

You know they were hiding his real identity. [b]They were shielding his background that he was not originally from Nigeria. He was not Hausa/Fulani. He was Kanuri. They were not part of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy. Although he adopted Kano as his home town he was originally from Chad. His family migrated from Chad. There are many of them in the North who joined the military at that time. [/b]There is no serious journalist in Nigeria who has been able to trace this guy’s background at least to three of four generations. If you go to Owo or Akure today, at least I would know the Abitogun family. Right. I would be able to tell the world that your great grandfather was a king of Ijebu – Owo… Nobody has been able to do that concerning the Abachas. In Nigeria, nobody is interested in all these kinds of things.

So the man…

Have you done that yourself?

[b]That is why I am telling you that the man was not a Nigerian. [/b]If a child’s father died… I lost my father early in life, but when you hear, you know that there are only two Fayemiwos in Yoruba land. One family in Ilesha and our own in Owo. And then the Ogedengbe Yoruba intra tribal war happened, and was displaced.

But in the case of this man,[b] Abacha was not a Nigerian. [/b]The Nigerian army was anything goes. When Yar’ Adua was killed by Abacha’s agent, if there was any godfather of the Hausa/Fulani, it was Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua. He was the head of the Kaduna Mafia. He was instrumental in advancing and placing many Northerners in the civil service. The current president Umaru and the former Chief of Supreme Headquarters, Shehu, were both born by the same man, Musa Yar’ Adua who was the first Minister of Lagos during Balewa regime under the Northern People’s Congress Government.

Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua was the only Nigerian Military officer promoted from a colonel to major general. He was never a brigadier.

The man was powerful and killing him because of political differences was an eye opener. And they said Abacha himself must go.

Abacha was planning to achieve three things by October 1, 1998. He was planning to remove the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, because Ado Bayero did not come to Aso Rock to commiserate with him over the death of Ibrahim Abacha, his controversial first son who died in the plane crash. That was another story on its own.

Abacha wrote it down.

Secondly,[b] he was to move and arrest Babangida on October 1, 1998, as he would have been sworn in as civilian president. Babangida was to join Obasanjo and Abiola in prison.

Thirdly, he was planning to remove Abubakar Abdul Salam as Minister of Defense. These were the three things on his list of things to do. He wrote it down and it was on his table.[/b]

The people leaked out the information. His Chief Security Officer, CSO, Major Hamzat Al – Mustapha saw the information and went to Kano to leak the information to Ado Bayero. Brigadier Sabo who was in DMI came to Abuja to brief Abacha and he saw the information. Abacha had excused himself in the middle of a discussion with Sabo. He looked at what Abacha wrote down that Babangida would be arrested on October 1, 1998. Sabo was afraid. It was Babangida who helped him into his position. Immediately, he left Aso Rock Presidential Villa, in Abjua, Sabo went to Babangida in Minna and told him what Abacha was planning to do. So the mafia went to work. The mafia and Babangida pulled resources together. They made up their mind that Abacha must be removed as early as January 1998. They were planning how to remove him. Babangida knew him very well that he loved women.

So that man did not die in the hands of two Indian women. That was a lie. It was a Nigerian who was used. His estranged girlfriend. Babangida and Abacha did not talk; they were not on speaking terms in the last two years of the regime. I knew that as far back as 1996, Babangida and Abacha were not on speaking terms. So when Sabo took the story to Minna, that this was what Abacha was planning, to arrest Babangida before October 1 st, Babangida and the oligarchy teamed up, a coalition of forces. They knew that if they had acted earlier, that Diya would likely become the Head of State, so they waited and removed Diya, who was pro Abiola first before striking against Abacha. Do you understand the story of Nigeria now? They knew Diya was pro June 12 and they had to frame him up and discredit him thoroughly so that he could not succeed Abacha…

Are you saying that Al – Mustapha’s tale about Diya’s cowardice was more baloney?

Al – Mustapha spoke within the limits of what was immediately open and obvious to him. He himself did not know the complexity of the situation of what we are talking about. Mustapha who came from Kano only knew that Abacha wanted to remove his Emir and told the Emir, so that, perhaps that one could initiate reconciliation. Babangida knew Abacha very well.

There were no two Indian prostitutes. They found the old girlfriend of Abacha and they gave her spiked Viagra.

Following the script crafted by Babangida, the lady went to Jeremiah Timbuktu Useni and told him that she wanted to settle the lingering squabble with her boyfriend, Abacha. Useni brought the girl and genuinely thought she actually came to make up with Abacha.
[b]
He took her to Abacha’s guest house, and from what I gathered, the lady was probably a friend to Useni’s daughter. Useni has a daughter; his first daughter, Hadiza who graduated from the University of Jos and she was a friend to Abacha’s girlfriend that the Babangida group used. Useni may not be aware that the lady and his first daughter Hadiza were friends. These guys are dirty, I tell you. They sleep with their friends’ wives and their daughters. And you can understand Abacha’s sexual escapades if you have read Dr. Taiwo Ogunade’s interview. Usually by one or two pm, Abacha would have left the office. The man would just go to his guest house and then the easy virtue ladies would be taking a queue. The man had high libido. So when Jerry Useni brought this lady, she apologized, and she made up with Abacha. So [u]Abacha said it has been a long time they did it and that he wanted to do it from the anus. Abacha liked sodomizing his women. Then the lady said if he wanted to do it that way and for her to enjoy it, Abacha needed to use Viagra. Are you following me now? It was the lady who gave Abacha Viagra. These are stories that no Nigerian newspapers would publish but had relied on Abdusalam Abubakar version.
[/b]
May be they don’t know about it?

I don’t know what is wrong with them. It is an international story, but they won’t publish this kind of story. Besides, if anyone gave it to them, they would be afraid and lamentably, they don’t have the resources to investigate. They would give you the official story that is the story everybody would run away with “oh two Indian prostitutes”. Where are the Indian ladies? It’s all rubbish. So once you are given spiked Viagra, you can’t survive it. Immediately Abacha started jerking, the lady just vamoosed. The security details came and wondered what was happening. Abacha died before 12 midnight. They brought him to Aso Rock around 11 pm. They didn’t know what to do.

Meanwhile, Useni had gone home after delivering the lethal lady to Abacha. He had gone his way after delivering the cargo. The man did not know what happened. He too was a useless man. He’s alive. Let him corroborate what I am saying.

Jeremiah Useni is still alive. Let him tell Nigerians what happened that night. No Indian prostitutes. Nothing happened. Abacha died in the evening. We heard about his death very early in DMI. The three guys who would have been president were Omenka, (please emphasize this place) Abubakar Abdulsalami would not have been Head of State. Al – Mustapha, Omenka and Sabo were the three guys. They would have seized power. [b]Abacha actually died inside his private car in the guest house. He was foaming. He was very loose during that period. He was always moving about in unmarked 504 without any security detail. You would think he was an ordinary person in the tainted glass car. He was very loose. [/b]The Peoples Liberation Army of Nigeria was able to tail his movement in Abuja. They knew where the man was going; they knew everything that was happening. Of course, Prof. Banjo can corroborate what I am saying. The man was very loose and not very security conscious, even at night.

When his remains were brought to Aso Rock, Al – Mustapha completely took charge. He allowed Sabo and Omenka to come in around one or two a.m.

Babangida called from Minna, because he knew what he had done, the call was so coincidental because Mrs. Maryam Abacha took the call, not knowing what had transpired, broke the news to Babangida. And Babangida landed at Aso Rock that night. And Babangida took over Aso Rock. He was the one who allowed Abubakar Abdulsalami inside the Dome. Abubakar Abdulsalam was completely oblivious of what had happened to Abacha. Babangida entered Ask Rock before Abubakar. Omenka is in Brazil with his wife, you guys should call him and let’s see if he will talk. Al-Mustapha is in detention and I hope the young man will regain his freedom so he can talk.

In the hierarchy of military seniority, Useni should have become Head of State immediately Abacha died but be was not allowed in until around 7 a.m. He wanted to come in but Babangida said he should be disallowed. Maryam Abacha was annoyed with Useni, because she saw him as the enabler, who was teaching her husband all the bad things. Useni was really loose when it came to women. Useni did not know what was happening. He came to Aso Rock with the mind to enter, Babangida was inside. So it was Babangida who now proclaimed Abubakar the new ruler.

Babangida had told Abdulsalami few months earlier not to retire because he still had one more thing to do for him (Babangida), in other words, I’m going to “remove Abacha, remove Diya and I would bring you in”. That was how Abubakar Abdulsalami became head of state.

Is there a way to know this Abacha’s alleged girl friend?

I don’t know. There are lots of mysteries happening in that country. There is no Indian prostitute. Women are so many in Nigeria, that Abacha would least think of any expatriate prostitute. You too should think about it. No Indian prostitute (laughs). They had already made up their mind that this was the story they want to sell us.

The same thing about Abiola, [b]Babangida knew that if Abiola survived, Abiola would possibly put him on trial. Abiola would have tried Babangida. Babangida could have been killed or put in prison. Immediately after Abacha’s death, they made up their mind that they had to kill Abiola. That is why Babangida is infecting a lot of people. So after his death only few people would be able to talk. If I were to be in Nigeria, I would not be able to say all this but I would probably have published it anyway. The man has done a lot of damage to that country. I am telling you, a lot of people have died in the hands of IBB. He is trying to cover it all up. Do you know how Gen. Tunde Idiagbon died? Obasanjo called Idiagbon in Ilorin and hinted that he was considering him as new Chief of Army Staff in 1999 immediately he was sworn in. Babangida advised against it and his Man Friday, Aliyu Muhammad Gusau objected against it. Obasanjo was hell bent and invited Idiagbon to Aso Rock. The poor man was served the same tea Abiola was served and Idiagbon returned to his home at Adeleye Crescent in Ilorin. About 21 days later, the man died; no sickness, no headache, no illness. Babangida was afraid of Idiagbon becoming COAS under Obasanjo. Throughout the time Idiagbon was in detention after they were toppled in 1985, in all the letters he wrote to his wife in Ilorin from detention, his pleading was that his wife should not fly aircraft or travel out because some people were planning to put hard drugs in her luggage in order to blackmail her. When I was serving in the NYSC, I lived in the next street to Idiagbon’s house and I used to visit the family regularly after leaving Gen. David Jemibewon’s house on Umar Audi Road, G.R.A. along Take Road, Ilorin.[/b]

It was because Bola Ige wanted to expose Babangida’s drug activities that they killed him. The man was coming here to take up appointment at the United Nations and he had some files with him incriminating Babangida and some of his cocaine boys but you see, they had to use Deoba Omisore as a cover. Obasanjo himself was cautious during the 8-years he was in Aso Rock, I am sure he looked the other way and that was why he castigated Bola Ige that the man didn’t know his right from his left. In other words, Bola Ige was naïve, you know, Obasanjo is a survivalist, a very wily and dubious man. He knows how to dine with the devil and come out unscathed.

They also killed Haruna Elewi, the former Minister for State for Communications. They used him to bring the boys who killed Bola Ige, because he knew Bola Ige’s house. They killed Bola Ige and removed the file. And after accomplishing their objective, they also got rid of Elewi. They killed Haruna Elewi himself.

Why didn’t Nigerian journalists hear of Justice Ubahomu Commission of Enquiry? Did you hear of it? That was the commission Buhari set up to try drug pushers. Immediately Babangida staged his coup, we heard no more of the commission. There are stories in Nigeria; there are lots of cover ups. Babangida scrapped the commission. And I don’t know if the man is still alive. A lot of people died to cover him up. He was there for eight years, and he is still covering up. Maybe when he is dead all these things that I am telling you, would be blown open. When I was publishing Razor in Nigeria, all those stories of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa panel, I had already published them and were not new. They described them as junk when we were publishing them. But all the stories have been confirmed.

How was your detention experience in Alagbon before you escaped to Benin Republic?

There were the other people I was detained with, Dr. Wale Babalakin, Dr. Femi Adekanye of defunct Commerce Bank, Ralph Osayemeh, Polycarp Nwite, Duro Emmanuel, Machan Zoaka, Chuma Nzeribe, Chief Femi Ajayi, Mr. Arigbe, Hasan Sani Kotagora, Kola Abiola. I was the one who gave Kola a mattress to sleep when they brought him to Alagbon. Kola Abioa was a very useless guy, very stupid, an ingrate. I was the secretary-general of Alagbon Detainees Association at FIIB, Alagbon, Bisket, Bisi Okeowo, then Bisi Shaba now Mrs Dan Musa and the late Kudirat Abiola.

Mrs Kudirat Abiola told me to watch out for her when she was brought to FIIB. She said “Ah Moshood, this is where they kept you?” “Why didn’t you send your wife to me?” And I said “auntie I don’t want to disturb you”. She gave me some inside stories too when I was publishing Razor. I would come to her house and I was always sending my wife to her, my former wife.

Besides what we have heard and read, what was the real reason Abacha ordered her assassination?

When Abiola was arrested and taken to Abuja in 1995, Abiola requested that he wanted one of his wives to come and cook for him for the Ramadan fast and he made the proposition to Abacha in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood and Abacha said “ok, which one would you want?” And Abiola said Kudirat Olayinka. So Abacha said fine.

So they gave Kudirat the message from Abacha to tell Abiola to drop his mandate. Kudirat herself told me that she replied to them that she would try to convince Abiola. Are you following me? She said she went there, cooked for Abiola and of course they had sex. You know what the security guys did; they captured everything on tape, ok?

After 1995 when the Ramadan fast was over, Kudirat left Abuja and returned to Lagos. The journalists were after her. What happened? Instead of her to say that she had access to Abiola and that things were being worked out between Abacha and Abiola just as agreed with Abacha, the woman was her principled self. And Abacha was expecting her to say that Abiola had renounced his mandate, the woman said no and told us that the man was committed to his mandate more than any other thing.

Abacha got mad that this was not the agreement. So he now sent words to Kudirat to apologize for all press interviews. He wanted Kudirat to apologize to him for what she said to journalists. Abacha called the late Oba Oyebade Lipede, the then Alake of Egba. Abacha instructed the Oba to personally bring Kudirat to Aso Rock to apologize for the public disgrace. Haven’t you seen the Nigerian constitution? A monarch virtually has no power. A Local Government Chairman can remove a king. So Abacha was so audacious and wanted Alake of Egba to do a police job. They had no power under Abacha. Abacha arrogated absolute power to himself. That is why he was able to steal. If you became an ordinary governor in Nigeria, you would never be poor. There were no check and balances. Very lawless.
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So Alake now sent for Kudirat to come to Abeokuta and when she got to the palace, Alake now told her that this is what Abacha said “you have caused problem again oh, Abacha said I must bring you to Aso Rock”.

Kudirat said “over my dead body. I would prefer to die than going to see him to apologize”.

Oba Lipede relayed the message back to Abacha. Abacha now sent words back to Kudirat through Oba Lipede that was what she would get… that she would die. This is the story as Kudirat told me during the few minutes we were able to talk in Alagbon.

She was planning to go to Canada on exile. I met the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria; Dr. Gerald Olsen before I left Nigeria. Olsen was one big guy like this. I asked what he felt the Canadian High Commission could do for me and it was the man who gave me a note to the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, that there was nothing they could do from Lagos that I should look at the pathetic case of Kudirat. She came the same way I came, expressed her fears that she feared for Abacha’s plan to kill her. Olsen said Canada was willing to risk her relations with Nigeria to help her out because she was afraid of what happened between her and Abacha. The man has since been posted away from Nigeria. Dr. Gerald Olsen. She came to see him a week before she was killed. He was telling me that I had to first escape from Nigeria to get any assistance. He gave me a note to their office in Ghana.

Hassan Sani Kotagora was generally believed to be a hate theorist for the cabal and the oligarchy. How did he end up being detained with you?

Thank you very much. There were several Igbos too. Several bankers were clamped into jail thinking they were the ones giving us money. What Abacha was doing to the South was what Hitler did to the Jews. He thought they were funneling money to us in the trenches. I told you that Abacha and Babangida had that animosity in the last two years of the administration. I got to know in Alagbon while I was there.

Hassan Sanni Kotagora owed some money, about N76m. He was arrested for owing that much. Some Northern leaders intervened on his behalf, Abacha refused saying he had to cough out what he owed.

So the leaders were now sent to Babangida to assist in talking to Abacha. And Babangida allegedly said he had not been talking to Abacha and that he would prefer to pay the money. He sent the check and the money was paid. And that was the ransom for Hassan Sanni Kotagora’s release. He did their dirty job and that still did not save him from their anger.

That is the tragedy.

Now to current events; do you think President Obama will ever visit Nigeria?

What are you and I here for? You think we’ll be watching? Why am I in Chicago? Both in his first and second terms, Obama will never go to Nigeria. Are you even sure there will be a country called Nigeria by 2016 when Obama would have finished his second term?

Why did you say so? What will happen?

You wait and see. Events will happen at such a dizzying speed that Nigerians themselves will be so shocked and surprised that they won’t believe what is happening. Let me tell you, a nation doesn’t fall and disintegrate at once, it first begins to crack and all of a sudden, it’s no more. Leave through history and review how nations fell and eventually disintegrated. Those who are still holding Nigeria together as a nation are not more than a handful, praying for that nation; Adeboye, Ukpai, Okonkwo, Oritsejafor, Akinola, Abiara, Makinde, Oyedepo and others. That is why that country is still intact; I am talking to you spiritually now. That grace will soon be removed and you wait and see.

Do you mean the Niger Delta crisis? You think it will not be contained?

A more deadly crisis is in the offing, in fact, there will soon be series of crises that those who are milking Nigeria will be taken aback. That country will soon divide, mark my words. I want you to go and note this interview. It shan’t be long.

Are you saying there is nothing that can be done to reposition Nigeria?

Not in the current situation, not the way the few cabal destroying that country is burring its head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich pretending all is well. The nucleus and life wire of Nigeria is oil; very soon, that spigot won’t pump oil any more. Meanwhile, people in the Western world will not need oil anymore. You live here in the United States and you know what I am talking about. Nigeria is not the giant of Africa. I don’t know where we got this funny idea from, at best, Nigeria is a big for nothing country. If population is what a nation needs to become a world leader, China and India should have been world leaders. Nigeria swaggers on the world stage as the giant of Africa because oil is a powerful tool in international political power equation. Those days will soon be over and by the time the leaders have nothing to steal any more, the party will soon be over. If those curmudgeons in Nigeria have senses, they should read and read the speech President Obama delivered in Accra, Ghana last week.

Do you think General Ibrahim Babangida will ever be brought to book?

As long as he stays in Nigeria, fly to Monaco where most of his loot is hidden and Switzerland. But we are waiting for him in America. All the houses he and Abacha and their cronies bought in Arizona, Washington DC, Texas and Virginia through fronts are under watch. We are waiting for him to step into the US soil. There are tons of documents we have on him and we’re waiting for the day he will enter America. Don’t ask me who are the “they.” I won’t say more than that.

This is a long but sensational interview. I have bolded the most shocking claims for those who do not want to read it all.


IBB killed Abiola, Abacha, Idiagbon, Ige and Elewi

Jul 24, 2009

The Moshood Fayemiwo Interview. Part II

- IBB killed Abiola, Abacha, Idiagbon, Ige and Elewi
- Abacha died of spiked viagra
- SSS kept Abiola's sex tape
- Abiola kept Samuel Doe's money in Swiss Bank
- Abiola funded 1985 Coup with $10 million
- Nigeria would break up soon

Two weeks ago we served you the first part of the no holds barred interview with pro democracy journalism icon, MOSHOOD FAYEMIWO. We now present the concluding part of the damning revelations concerning leading political and military personalities and landmark events during the darkest days of Nigeria under military dictatorship. The interview was anchored by our managing editor, OLADIMEJI ABITOGUN. Excerpts:

Why would you consider it fair to pin all the mis-governance on Hausa/Fulani area. You know other individuals from other tribes and parts of Nigeria are guilty as well…

People who are students of history, especially those who have studied the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy, if you have read a book by J.F.A. Ade – Ajayi, Africa in the Nineteenth Century, it is about the history, explained the history of Hausa State, talks of the arrival of one Baya Jida from the Middle East who married the Queen of Daura. I think from the present Katsina State.

And between them they had seven Hausa sons who are called the Banza Bakwai. And then there were seven other illegitimate sons of same man. The seven illegitimate sons later formed the fourteen Hausa States. Daura, Katsina, Zau Zau (Zaria), Kano, Rano and Biram, Gwandu

The Fulanis arrived in the Northern area and conquered the Hausas. Hausas and Fulani had historically been separate people. I studied African History at the graduate level and learned from respectable and unbiased professors; the best in the field. It is important that people understand this story, and eventually, the Fulani legitimized their power over the Hausas and imposed their religion and ways of life on the Hausas. Historically, Hausas were not Moslems; their religion was what they called Maigazuya or Maigazurra kind of religion. This comprised magic, witchcraft and all the rest, mixed with Islam. The Fulanis came and emasculated the Hausas, changed their religion and even their ways of life. Today, these Fulanis who speak Fulfude are in Northern Nigeria. They became Hausa-Fulani and are determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic enclave. This is the war that Chief Obafemi Awolowo fought to resist; we are still fighting it today in Nigeria. People do not know what is happening and that is why I said those who are ruling Nigeria, who are destroying that nation, you can count them, a handful of them. What they do is that they believe that political, religious and economic powers in Nigeria belong to them. They see others as second-class citizens, they are full of hubris. The way they operate is to plant Emirs in even non-Moslem and non-Hausa-Fulani towns and villages. Can you believe that Lafia in Nassarawa State with just a handful of Hausa-Fulani should be governed by an Emir? I served in Ilorin, Kwara State during my NYSC and could count the number of Hausa-Fulani resident in that city yet they are ruled by an Emir.

While we, in the South are running after money, not yet able to put our acts together, these people have perfected how they are going to rule Nigeria forever. Yorubas, Ibos,Ibibios, Efik, Benin, Kalabaris, Itshekiri and the rest in the South should wake up otherwise our children and grandchildren will curse us in our graves after we have gone. They will ask just as my children are asking me now in America; Daddy, what did you do? Are you just watching?. There is discrimination in Nigeria to the level that since the 1960’s no person outside the Hausa – Fulani oligarchy has ruled Nigeria. The two periods under southern leadership was more or less accidental.

The death, the assassination of Muritala Mohammed paved the way for Obasanjo to rule in the 1976 and after a democratically acclaimed election was held in 1993, the only person who could represent the genuine aspirations of Nigerians, M.K.O. Abiola was stopped by the oligarchy. They brought their man, Olusegun Obasanjo, to rule again. Between 1976-1979, Obasanjo was not even ruling; the power really was in the hands of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the elder brother of the one there now; Umaru. The late General Olufemi Olutoye once narrated a story in his autobiography where he said, immediately Obasanjo was sworn into office in 1976 following Muritala Muhammed’s death, he came to Doddan Barracks and explained the situation of other ethnic tribes to him in federal appointments and the need to redress anomaly. He left after his discussions with Obasanjo and few hours later, Obasanjo set for him. The late Gen. Musa Yar’Adua, the then Chuef of Staff Supreme Headquarters was already waiting and in the latter’s presence, Obasanjo asked him to repeat what he had just said few hours earlier. He, Olutoye repeated what he told Obasanjo. The following morning, Olutoye’s retirement was announced on the FRCN. It was so bad in the 1970s down till the 1990s that some Southerners in the Nigerian Military had to change their names to Mohammed, Umaru and even converted into Islam to get promotion. I knew those Southerners who left the Nigerian Army out of frustration because of this nonsense. The fact of the matter is there is no Nigerian Army, what we have is Northern Nigerian Army. We cannot continue like this as a people, Southerners must assert their legitimate rights in their own fatherland or we go our separate ways, period.

Do you know I have more rights as a Nigerian-American here in the United States than my native land Nigeria?

So look at Nigerian history, by next year, we shall be fifty years old as a nation. No non-Northerner has always earned a genuine mandate for the aspirations of our people. They control the military; this is the reality, the internal colonization of the country that I am talking about.

The southerners must sit down and organize and say that it is either they are accepted as equals or everybody must go his own way.


What is the real legitimate reason for the annulment of June 12 elections? What do you know in view of the fact that some people claim IBB had intelligence, almost incontrovertible that Abiola was a CIA operative?

Some analysts say Babangida was pressurized, this and that, in annulling that election. That was hogwash. A person, a rogue, a coup plotter like Babangida, a former drug baron like Babangida, could not be pushed by anybody. They even said what they wanted you journalists to believe that some officers in the military put a gun to his head. That did not happen. Which officer could do that so that he could annul the election? These are the rubbish they are feeding Nigerians. It is so sad that those who called themselves leaders appear on television and lie barefaced to Nigerians and we believe them. These are not men and women of honor, I tell you. They lie, they steal and they kill. Since 1960, the act of governance, administration has always been in secrecy. There are two stories to every government decision and policy in Nigeria as I have pointed out to you. Two levels of information exist in Nigeria, to create a façade and avoid public scrutiny. Political actors give us two stories, the official story and the unofficial story. And the Nigerian press goes with the official story. They are part and parcel of the official. That organized conspiracy was elevated to official pastime during the disastrous years called the IBB years. You know they always appeared on television or during their media chats with these ludicrous epithets; “We do not run our government on the pages of newspapers.” Remember?

Even the so-called Obasanjo “elected government, you hear them telling Nigerians “oh this government is not run on the pages of newspapers”.

Why should government not be run on the pages of newspapers? In a democracy? That is why you will know that there are two versions of stories. The truth, which only few people would be privy to are the official stories that they use the media to push out to the Nigerian Public. That was what happened on June 12.
[b]
We all know that June 12 is the ultimate culmination of the 1985 coup of survival which Babangida staged for self – preservation.

Let us be frank, the man did not want to leave the place. He was coming out with the idea of diarchy. He sent people like Mukoro Tony Nyiam to study the idea in Egypt, Santiago in Chile, and an admixture of civilian and military leadership. That was what the man was planning until Abiola decided to contest. Of course you know the story of how Abiola emerged as the candidate of the then Social Democratic Party S.D.P. Abiola was able to emerge as the presidential flag bearer as the SDP in Jos as late Major – General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua discovered that, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe was pealing away votes from Atiku Abubakar for Abiola.

The forces of Atiku and Abiola teamed up and worked for Abiola’s victory. What they did was that six people met at the residence of Ambassador Yaya Kwade on Ibrahim Taiwo Avenue in Jos, M.K.O. Abiola, his first son, Kola, Dr. Jonathan Zwingina (later became a senator), Major General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua himself, Atiku Abubakar and Yaya Kwande. And they agreed, and Abiola himself appended his signature that the forces of Atiku Abubakar will co-operate and that when Abiola emerged as the flag bearer that he would make Atiku Abubakar his running mate. Abiola agreed. He became the flag bearer of the SDP.
[/b]
[b]While they were there, because we have to be frank, it was not actually a primary, for those of us who were there, Abiola bought the ticket, because of his money power. Where Ambassador Kingibe was spending N500, N2, 000 to buy delegates, Abiola upped the stakes to N10, 000, N20, 000 per delegate. Unknown to Abiola, Babangida’s agents were filming everything live. They captured everything on tape. For example, Abiola gave N10m cash to Lamidi Adedibu. And the late Adedibu was captured on tape with wads of Naira notes shouting to Oyo State delegates “Eyin ara Ibadan, Owo Abiola ti de”, meaning “Folks from Ibadan, Abiola’s cash has landed” (laughs) openly. You know the man was a political jobber, half-illiterate. And suddenly, delegates for Atiku and Kingibe moved and switched to Abiola. Abiola instructed Kola to increase the stakes to N20, 000 against N500 from the others. It was cash and carry for Abiola. They were all caught on tape and that was the tape that Babangida sent to the State Department here in the United States to justify the annulment among other reasons

[/b]So all the trips to Abuja where he allegedly accused Abiola of operating for CIA….

No. He did not even give that reason. It was his crony, Sani Abacha, I am coming back to that issue, and it was Obasanjo who prompted Sani Abacha to stage the November 24, 1993 coup.

[b]There were basically three reasons Babangida annulled the election.

First, the man didn’t just want to go. He wanted diarchy. That was why Olumilua, Adeleke, Ebri, Osoba, Otedola ruled with him for two years.

Secondly, there were deep – seated animosities between him and Abiola. Most Nigerians do not want to hear this that the money kept in Abiola’s account through an arrangement brokered by Babangida was one of the reasons that caused the problem. And of course when Maryam Babangida went to Beijing in China, there were reports that Abiola slept with the woman, [/u]which no one knew. [/b]Whether it was a lie, it was going to be a lie. These were the personal reasons. Babangida’s personal self entrenchment and the betrayal of each other over Sergeant Samuel Kanyon Doe’s money.

Doe was looking for where to keep the money he had stolen from the Liberian economy. He was looking for a place to keep the money for his wife Nancy and his children. So he approached Babangida. And Babangida told him “hey, I’m president here and I don’t want to put the money in my account. We have a friend who we can use”.

That was how he suggested Abiola and of course, Abiola had investment in Liberia. So the money was paid into Abiola’s Swiss Account.

After Doe died, Nancy, his wife came all the way from London to Nigeria. No Nigerian newspaper, most editors knew, but did not want to carry it. None of them could carry the story, the plan was for…. Babangida had suggested to Doe to go on exile at the thick of the Liberian war. He felt he could go to Saudi Arabia. The late Idi Amin also came to Nigeria and stayed in Sheraton Hotel during that period. Idi Amin called and advised Doe not to go on exile, that with timing, the war may eventually favor Doe. Idi Amin was the one who told him not to go on exile.

The Saudi authorities were ready to take Doe. As it eventually turned out, Doe was killed by Yormie Johnson’s soldiers. So his family, Doe’s families were now in need and they came to Nigeria to ask for what their bread winner had kept for them. Babangida welcomed them, and then he sent for Abiola. Abiola replied that, well the money was paid into the late Simbiat Abiola, his first wife’s account. And that he wasn’t the person holding that account, that it was Kola Abiola and that Babangida should call his first son, Kola. So Babangida felt insulted that this was a friend of both of them who was in need so that he could take care of his family and Abiola was saying all those kind of things. You know how I was able to authenticate the story? Through the late Shehu Musa Yar ‘Adua, because Chris Mamman, who eventually became Chief Press Secretary to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar took me to General Yar’ Adua’s office in Victoria Island. Nancy Doe, the wife of late Samuel Doe of Liberia is in London, you guys should track her down for an interview.[b] Nigerian newspapers don’t have the resources in the first place to pursue that kind of story and secondly, no editor in Nigeria will dare venture to publish such a story. I told you that Babangida has corrupted virtually all of them either directly or indirectly. It’s just so bad that most editors are on the payroll of the SSS while some are moles in the newsroom. Some editors have to be looking over their shoulders when they are planning stories because you just don’t know who would betray you to the soldiers in power. [/b]I doubt whether that culture has changed much. As I have said, we have the finest and the best journalists in the world but the institutional obstacles in media houses are formidable. Nigerian Journalists are poorly paid, there is no insurance and the tools are not there for them to work.

Was Mr. Mamman there during this conversation?

Yes. It was General Yar’ Adua who gave us the story. And he also said it that when Abiola ran into trouble, that he said, that he, Yar’ Adua had warned Abiola that “are you sure”, he was telling Chris Mamman that he told Abiola “are you sure that our friend Ibrahim was ready to leave?” That was what he said he asked him when he wanted to run for the presidency. “I wanted to be president too, the man banned me. Are you sure you would not be banned?” That even if you win the election, are you sure that Babangida was ready to go?” All that with the Doe offer…” and Abiola assured him that he too had done a lot of favors for Babangida in the past, he was the one who gave him money when he struck in 1985, that the two of them had extended favors to each other, and that he did not see a reason why Babangida would not want him to succeed him. This was from the mouth of Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua in the presence of Chris Mamman. But most newspapers would not carry this story in Nigeria.

Babangida had been saying that Abiola would not last more than sixty days, ninety days. No soldier, no person put any gun on his head.


Have you met Babangida in person before?

I wouldn’t say that I met him one on one. The first time I saw him was in 1985, while I worked with Concord. One of Abiola’s wives had a baby and they were having the naming ceremony. Virtually all the top editors of Concord titles were in Abiola’s house that night at Moshood Abiola crescent at Ikeja; that was the first time I saw Babangida afar. In fact it was at that ceremony, the naming ceremony, that the details of the August 27, 1985 coup were fine tuned. That was where they planned everything. That was where Abiola released the money for the boys…

H[b]ow much?

Ten million U.S. dollars cash. They wanted money. Babangida and his boys never knew whether the coup would succeed or not. And they needed money. There was no other safe meeting point were Babangida and Abiola would have a conversation. Rafindadi, the National Security Organization, NSO’s boss, had already bugged Babangida’s telephone lines. They used the innocent child’s naming ceremony as a cover – up. Duro Onabule was there that day. I think it was Ebenezer Obey that entertained, there were lots of musicians. I think Sikiru Ayinde Barrister also played that night. So while guests were in front of Abiola’s house, the military guys who came with Babangida, Abubakar Umar and the others retired to the back of Abiola’s house. It was in that place that they struck. They had chosen October 1 st, 1985 as I told you before but acted faster. Buhari is still alive; he should confirm or deny what I am saying… They knew the details. I am issuing that challenge. Up till today Buhari has not spoken on why he was toppled. He should speak out. Top editors can corroborate what I am telling you now. They know it. May be they’re waiting for Babangida to die and then they would come out with their “exclusive.”[/b]

You promised me you would reveal the story behind Abacha’s coup and how and the way he died.

Oh yes. Not only that, let me also tell you how Abiola died. When Babangida was chased out, his tail between his legs, or whatever he chose to call it, “stepping aside”, he had lost the initiative, right? They put up the contraption called ING (Interim National Government). He knew that his friend, the Chief of Army Staff and the Defense Minister, Sani Abacha would stage the coup. There were some young Army Officers led by Col. Bello Fadile, who wanted to stage a coup, to pre-empt Abacha’s take over. Those guys went to Ota farm to inform Obasanjo. Are you listening to me? Those guys were between the ranks of majors and colonels. They were young guys who wanted to stage a coup and remove Shonekan. We don’t know whether they were planning to revalidate June 12. They went to Obasanjo at Ota Farm, Ogun State to tell him and when they left, Obasanjo wrote a personal letter to Abacha. When Obasanjo saw that the boys, he knew they were radicals. He knew that if those guys succeeded in their coup, there would be a lot of things that would happen in Nigeria which he did not like. So he wrote a personal letter to Abacha to do something about it. And that was more or less a coded way of telling Abacha to stage a coup. It was that letter that Abacha used to rope Obasanjo into the coup saga later on when Obasanjo snubbed Abacha. That letter got him in jail.

Abacha had also sworn to have his day against Obasanjo for spiting him by declining a ride in the presidential plane with him to Mandela’s inauguration in South Africa. He invited Obasanjo for a ride. Obasanjo said he would not be going. When Abacha staged his own coup in November 17, 1993 because of the personal letter of instigation from Obasanjo, Obasanjo refused the presidential ride. When Abacha got to South Africa, he saw Obasanjo and he said “ha ha”. When he came back, he had this attitude like Idi Amin that “if you are not my friend, you must be my enemy. And if you are my enemy, you must die”. (Laughs) So he got the message that this guy was trying to avoid him and that was why he did not ride with him to South Africa. That Obasanjo’s snobbery was what landed him in trouble. He was double-dealing. Consulted for Abacha in secret and avoided and distanced himself in public. For Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, he got into trouble for sponsoring a motion calling for return-to-civil rule in 1998 at the so-called Constitutional Conference set up by Abacha. He went to the NUJ Lighthouse to address a press conference and later that day, as Abacha’s hit men were after him, he jetted out of the country to Saudi Arabia. Three weeks later when he returned to Nigeria, Abacha ordered he should be picked up and you know the rest of the story.

So, how did Abacha die?

Remember there are two story lines to events in Nigeria. The official one that they dish out to you journalists which they use to hide the real truth, and the unofficial one which is the real thing but which would not be published in the newspapers. That is the real story which is usually unofficial. It still happens today. Remember how they desperately denied your story that Yar’ Adua was sick? You see that the man still looks very sickly. You cannot rely on government spokesmen or their ubiquitous press releases.

They want Nigerians and the international community to think that Abacha died in the hands of two Indian prostitutes. It is a lie. I was kidnapped and kept by the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI, at that time. You know being detained by DMI allows one has a peep into the real happenings in Nigeria. That is the secret of government. The DMI is where most intelligence stories come out.

This is the way Abacha died. Abacha was eliminated by the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy. There were three reasons why they took him out. When he came into power and removed the ING and refused to revalidate June 12 election, the Northerners were happy. While he was clamping the NADECO people and was hounding most of us in the radical media and threatened to destroy and kill people in Lagos, the oligarchy and followers were happy and cheering him.

But when Abacha decided to attack Yar’ Adua by administering toxic injection on him and the man was killed inside Abakaliki prison, killing the head of the Kaduna Mafia like that, the Northerners now knew too late that Abacha was not fighting for the oligarchy. It was the death of Musa Yar’ Adua that opened their eyes; that this so called Abacha had a personal agenda.

You know they were hiding his real identity. [b]They were shielding his background that he was not originally from Nigeria. He was not Hausa/Fulani. He was Kanuri. They were not part of the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy. Although he adopted Kano as his home town he was originally from Chad. His family migrated from Chad. There are many of them in the North who joined the military at that time. [/b]There is no serious journalist in Nigeria who has been able to trace this guy’s background at least to three of four generations. If you go to Owo or Akure today, at least I would know the Abitogun family. Right. I would be able to tell the world that your great grandfather was a king of Ijebu – Owo… Nobody has been able to do that concerning the Abachas. In Nigeria, nobody is interested in all these kinds of things.

So the man…

Have you done that yourself?

[b]That is why I am telling you that the man was not a Nigerian. [/b]If a child’s father died… I lost my father early in life, but when you hear, you know that there are only two Fayemiwos in Yoruba land. One family in Ilesha and our own in Owo. And then the Ogedengbe Yoruba intra tribal war happened, and was displaced.

But in the case of this man,[b] Abacha was not a Nigerian. [/b]The Nigerian army was anything goes. When Yar’ Adua was killed by Abacha’s agent, if there was any godfather of the Hausa/Fulani, it was Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua. He was the head of the Kaduna Mafia. He was instrumental in advancing and placing many Northerners in the civil service. The current president Umaru and the former Chief of Supreme Headquarters, Shehu, were both born by the same man, Musa Yar’ Adua who was the first Minister of Lagos during Balewa regime under the Northern People’s Congress Government.

Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua was the only Nigerian Military officer promoted from a colonel to major general. He was never a brigadier.

The man was powerful and killing him because of political differences was an eye opener. And they said Abacha himself must go.

Abacha was planning to achieve three things by October 1, 1998. He was planning to remove the Emir of Kano, Ado Bayero, because Ado Bayero did not come to Aso Rock to commiserate with him over the death of Ibrahim Abacha, his controversial first son who died in the plane crash. That was another story on its own.

Abacha wrote it down.

Secondly,[b] he was to move and arrest Babangida on October 1, 1998, as he would have been sworn in as civilian president. Babangida was to join Obasanjo and Abiola in prison.

Thirdly, he was planning to remove Abubakar Abdul Salam as Minister of Defense. These were the three things on his list of things to do. He wrote it down and it was on his table.[/b]

The people leaked out the information. His Chief Security Officer, CSO, Major Hamzat Al – Mustapha saw the information and went to Kano to leak the information to Ado Bayero. Brigadier Sabo who was in DMI came to Abuja to brief Abacha and he saw the information. Abacha had excused himself in the middle of a discussion with Sabo. He looked at what Abacha wrote down that Babangida would be arrested on October 1, 1998. Sabo was afraid. It was Babangida who helped him into his position. Immediately, he left Aso Rock Presidential Villa, in Abjua, Sabo went to Babangida in Minna and told him what Abacha was planning to do. So the mafia went to work. The mafia and Babangida pulled resources together. They made up their mind that Abacha must be removed as early as January 1998. They were planning how to remove him. Babangida knew him very well that he loved women.

So that man did not die in the hands of two Indian women. That was a lie. It was a Nigerian who was used. His estranged girlfriend. Babangida and Abacha did not talk; they were not on speaking terms in the last two years of the regime. I knew that as far back as 1996, Babangida and Abacha were not on speaking terms. So when Sabo took the story to Minna, that this was what Abacha was planning, to arrest Babangida before October 1 st, Babangida and the oligarchy teamed up, a coalition of forces. They knew that if they had acted earlier, that Diya would likely become the Head of State, so they waited and removed Diya, who was pro Abiola first before striking against Abacha. Do you understand the story of Nigeria now? They knew Diya was pro June 12 and they had to frame him up and discredit him thoroughly so that he could not succeed Abacha…

Are you saying that Al – Mustapha’s tale about Diya’s cowardice was more baloney?

Al – Mustapha spoke within the limits of what was immediately open and obvious to him. He himself did not know the complexity of the situation of what we are talking about. Mustapha who came from Kano only knew that Abacha wanted to remove his Emir and told the Emir, so that, perhaps that one could initiate reconciliation. Babangida knew Abacha very well.

There were no two Indian prostitutes. They found the old girlfriend of Abacha and they gave her spiked Viagra.

Following the script crafted by Babangida, the lady went to Jeremiah Timbuktu Useni and told him that she wanted to settle the lingering squabble with her boyfriend, Abacha. Useni brought the girl and genuinely thought she actually came to make up with Abacha.
[b]
He took her to Abacha’s guest house, and from what I gathered, the lady was probably a friend to Useni’s daughter. Useni has a daughter; his first daughter, Hadiza who graduated from the University of Jos and she was a friend to Abacha’s girlfriend that the Babangida group used. Useni may not be aware that the lady and his first daughter Hadiza were friends. These guys are dirty, I tell you. They sleep with their friends’ wives and their daughters. And you can understand Abacha’s sexual escapades if you have read Dr. Taiwo Ogunade’s interview. Usually by one or two pm, Abacha would have left the office. The man would just go to his guest house and then the easy virtue ladies would be taking a queue. The man had high libido. So when Jerry Useni brought this lady, she apologized, and she made up with Abacha. So [u]Abacha said it has been a long time they did it and that he wanted to do it from the anus. Abacha liked sodomizing his women. Then the lady said if he wanted to do it that way and for her to enjoy it, Abacha needed to use Viagra. Are you following me now? It was the lady who gave Abacha Viagra. These are stories that no Nigerian newspapers would publish but had relied on Abdusalam Abubakar version.
[/b]
May be they don’t know about it?

I don’t know what is wrong with them. It is an international story, but they won’t publish this kind of story. Besides, if anyone gave it to them, they would be afraid and lamentably, they don’t have the resources to investigate. They would give you the official story that is the story everybody would run away with “oh two Indian prostitutes”. Where are the Indian ladies? It’s all rubbish. So once you are given spiked Viagra, you can’t survive it. Immediately Abacha started jerking, the lady just vamoosed. The security details came and wondered what was happening. Abacha died before 12 midnight. They brought him to Aso Rock around 11 pm. They didn’t know what to do.

Meanwhile, Useni had gone home after delivering the lethal lady to Abacha. He had gone his way after delivering the cargo. The man did not know what happened. He too was a useless man. He’s alive. Let him corroborate what I am saying.

Jeremiah Useni is still alive. Let him tell Nigerians what happened that night. No Indian prostitutes. Nothing happened. Abacha died in the evening. We heard about his death very early in DMI. The three guys who would have been president were Omenka, (please emphasize this place) Abubakar Abdulsalami would not have been Head of State. Al – Mustapha, Omenka and Sabo were the three guys. They would have seized power. [b]Abacha actually died inside his private car in the guest house. He was foaming. He was very loose during that period. He was always moving about in unmarked 504 without any security detail. You would think he was an ordinary person in the tainted glass car. He was very loose. [/b]The Peoples Liberation Army of Nigeria was able to tail his movement in Abuja. They knew where the man was going; they knew everything that was happening. Of course, Prof. Banjo can corroborate what I am saying. The man was very loose and not very security conscious, even at night.

When his remains were brought to Aso Rock, Al – Mustapha completely took charge. He allowed Sabo and Omenka to come in around one or two a.m.

Babangida called from Minna, because he knew what he had done, the call was so coincidental because Mrs. Maryam Abacha took the call, not knowing what had transpired, broke the news to Babangida. And Babangida landed at Aso Rock that night. And Babangida took over Aso Rock. He was the one who allowed Abubakar Abdulsalami inside the Dome. Abubakar Abdulsalam was completely oblivious of what had happened to Abacha. Babangida entered Ask Rock before Abubakar. Omenka is in Brazil with his wife, you guys should call him and let’s see if he will talk. Al-Mustapha is in detention and I hope the young man will regain his freedom so he can talk.

In the hierarchy of military seniority, Useni should have become Head of State immediately Abacha died but be was not allowed in until around 7 a.m. He wanted to come in but Babangida said he should be disallowed. Maryam Abacha was annoyed with Useni, because she saw him as the enabler, who was teaching her husband all the bad things. Useni was really loose when it came to women. Useni did not know what was happening. He came to Aso Rock with the mind to enter, Babangida was inside. So it was Babangida who now proclaimed Abubakar the new ruler.

Babangida had told Abdulsalami few months earlier not to retire because he still had one more thing to do for him (Babangida), in other words, I’m going to “remove Abacha, remove Diya and I would bring you in”. That was how Abubakar Abdulsalami became head of state.

Is there a way to know this Abacha’s alleged girl friend?

I don’t know. There are lots of mysteries happening in that country. There is no Indian prostitute. Women are so many in Nigeria, that Abacha would least think of any expatriate prostitute. You too should think about it. No Indian prostitute (laughs). They had already made up their mind that this was the story they want to sell us.

The same thing about Abiola, [b]Babangida knew that if Abiola survived, Abiola would possibly put him on trial. Abiola would have tried Babangida. Babangida could have been killed or put in prison. Immediately after Abacha’s death, they made up their mind that they had to kill Abiola. That is why Babangida is infecting a lot of people. So after his death only few people would be able to talk. If I were to be in Nigeria, I would not be able to say all this but I would probably have published it anyway. The man has done a lot of damage to that country. I am telling you, a lot of people have died in the hands of IBB. He is trying to cover it all up. Do you know how Gen. Tunde Idiagbon died? Obasanjo called Idiagbon in Ilorin and hinted that he was considering him as new Chief of Army Staff in 1999 immediately he was sworn in. Babangida advised against it and his Man Friday, Aliyu Muhammad Gusau objected against it. Obasanjo was hell bent and invited Idiagbon to Aso Rock. The poor man was served the same tea Abiola was served and Idiagbon returned to his home at Adeleye Crescent in Ilorin. About 21 days later, the man died; no sickness, no headache, no illness. Babangida was afraid of Idiagbon becoming COAS under Obasanjo. Throughout the time Idiagbon was in detention after they were toppled in 1985, in all the letters he wrote to his wife in Ilorin from detention, his pleading was that his wife should not fly aircraft or travel out because some people were planning to put hard drugs in her luggage in order to blackmail her. When I was serving in the NYSC, I lived in the next street to Idiagbon’s house and I used to visit the family regularly after leaving Gen. David Jemibewon’s house on Umar Audi Road, G.R.A. along Take Road, Ilorin.[/b]

It was because Bola Ige wanted to expose Babangida’s drug activities that they killed him. The man was coming here to take up appointment at the United Nations and he had some files with him incriminating Babangida and some of his cocaine boys but you see, they had to use Deoba Omisore as a cover. Obasanjo himself was cautious during the 8-years he was in Aso Rock, I am sure he looked the other way and that was why he castigated Bola Ige that the man didn’t know his right from his left. In other words, Bola Ige was naïve, you know, Obasanjo is a survivalist, a very wily and dubious man. He knows how to dine with the devil and come out unscathed.

They also killed Haruna Elewi, the former Minister for State for Communications. They used him to bring the boys who killed Bola Ige, because he knew Bola Ige’s house. They killed Bola Ige and removed the file. And after accomplishing their objective, they also got rid of Elewi. They killed Haruna Elewi himself.

Why didn’t Nigerian journalists hear of Justice Ubahomu Commission of Enquiry? Did you hear of it? That was the commission Buhari set up to try drug pushers. Immediately Babangida staged his coup, we heard no more of the commission. There are stories in Nigeria; there are lots of cover ups. Babangida scrapped the commission. And I don’t know if the man is still alive. A lot of people died to cover him up. He was there for eight years, and he is still covering up. Maybe when he is dead all these things that I am telling you, would be blown open. When I was publishing Razor in Nigeria, all those stories of Justice Chukwudifu Oputa panel, I had already published them and were not new. They described them as junk when we were publishing them. But all the stories have been confirmed.

How was your detention experience in Alagbon before you escaped to Benin Republic?

There were the other people I was detained with, Dr. Wale Babalakin, Dr. Femi Adekanye of defunct Commerce Bank, Ralph Osayemeh, Polycarp Nwite, Duro Emmanuel, Machan Zoaka, Chuma Nzeribe, Chief Femi Ajayi, Mr. Arigbe, Hasan Sani Kotagora, Kola Abiola. I was the one who gave Kola a mattress to sleep when they brought him to Alagbon. Kola Abioa was a very useless guy, very stupid, an ingrate. I was the secretary-general of Alagbon Detainees Association at FIIB, Alagbon, Bisket, Bisi Okeowo, then Bisi Shaba now Mrs Dan Musa and the late Kudirat Abiola.

Mrs Kudirat Abiola told me to watch out for her when she was brought to FIIB. She said “Ah Moshood, this is where they kept you?” “Why didn’t you send your wife to me?” And I said “auntie I don’t want to disturb you”. She gave me some inside stories too when I was publishing Razor. I would come to her house and I was always sending my wife to her, my former wife.

Besides what we have heard and read, what was the real reason Abacha ordered her assassination?

When Abiola was arrested and taken to Abuja in 1995, Abiola requested that he wanted one of his wives to come and cook for him for the Ramadan fast and he made the proposition to Abacha in the spirit of Islamic brotherhood and Abacha said “ok, which one would you want?” And Abiola said Kudirat Olayinka. So Abacha said fine.

So they gave Kudirat the message from Abacha to tell Abiola to drop his mandate. Kudirat herself told me that she replied to them that she would try to convince Abiola. Are you following me? She said she went there, cooked for Abiola and of course they had sex. You know what the security guys did; they captured everything on tape, ok?

After 1995 when the Ramadan fast was over, Kudirat left Abuja and returned to Lagos. The journalists were after her. What happened? Instead of her to say that she had access to Abiola and that things were being worked out between Abacha and Abiola just as agreed with Abacha, the woman was her principled self. And Abacha was expecting her to say that Abiola had renounced his mandate, the woman said no and told us that the man was committed to his mandate more than any other thing.

Abacha got mad that this was not the agreement. So he now sent words to Kudirat to apologize for all press interviews. He wanted Kudirat to apologize to him for what she said to journalists. Abacha called the late Oba Oyebade Lipede, the then Alake of Egba. Abacha instructed the Oba to personally bring Kudirat to Aso Rock to apologize for the public disgrace. Haven’t you seen the Nigerian constitution? A monarch virtually has no power. A Local Government Chairman can remove a king. So Abacha was so audacious and wanted Alake of Egba to do a police job. They had no power under Abacha. Abacha arrogated absolute power to himself. That is why he was able to steal. If you became an ordinary governor in Nigeria, you would never be poor. There were no check and balances. Very lawless.
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So Alake now sent for Kudirat to come to Abeokuta and when she got to the palace, Alake now told her that this is what Abacha said “you have caused problem again oh, Abacha said I must bring you to Aso Rock”.

Kudirat said “over my dead body. I would prefer to die than going to see him to apologize”.

Oba Lipede relayed the message back to Abacha. Abacha now sent words back to Kudirat through Oba Lipede that was what she would get… that she would die. This is the story as Kudirat told me during the few minutes we were able to talk in Alagbon.

She was planning to go to Canada on exile. I met the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria; Dr. Gerald Olsen before I left Nigeria. Olsen was one big guy like this. I asked what he felt the Canadian High Commission could do for me and it was the man who gave me a note to the Canadian High Commission in Ghana, that there was nothing they could do from Lagos that I should look at the pathetic case of Kudirat. She came the same way I came, expressed her fears that she feared for Abacha’s plan to kill her. Olsen said Canada was willing to risk her relations with Nigeria to help her out because she was afraid of what happened between her and Abacha. The man has since been posted away from Nigeria. Dr. Gerald Olsen. She came to see him a week before she was killed. He was telling me that I had to first escape from Nigeria to get any assistance. He gave me a note to their office in Ghana.

Hassan Sani Kotagora was generally believed to be a hate theorist for the cabal and the oligarchy. How did he end up being detained with you?

Thank you very much. There were several Igbos too. Several bankers were clamped into jail thinking they were the ones giving us money. What Abacha was doing to the South was what Hitler did to the Jews. He thought they were funneling money to us in the trenches. I told you that Abacha and Babangida had that animosity in the last two years of the administration. I got to know in Alagbon while I was there.

Hassan Sanni Kotagora owed some money, about N76m. He was arrested for owing that much. Some Northern leaders intervened on his behalf, Abacha refused saying he had to cough out what he owed.

So the leaders were now sent to Babangida to assist in talking to Abacha. And Babangida allegedly said he had not been talking to Abacha and that he would prefer to pay the money. He sent the check and the money was paid. And that was the ransom for Hassan Sanni Kotagora’s release. He did their dirty job and that still did not save him from their anger.

That is the tragedy.

Now to current events; do you think President Obama will ever visit Nigeria?

What are you and I here for? You think we’ll be watching? Why am I in Chicago? Both in his first and second terms, Obama will never go to Nigeria. Are you even sure there will be a country called Nigeria by 2016 when Obama would have finished his second term?

Why did you say so? What will happen?

You wait and see. Events will happen at such a dizzying speed that Nigerians themselves will be so shocked and surprised that they won’t believe what is happening. Let me tell you, a nation doesn’t fall and disintegrate at once, it first begins to crack and all of a sudden, it’s no more. Leave through history and review how nations fell and eventually disintegrated. Those who are still holding Nigeria together as a nation are not more than a handful, praying for that nation; Adeboye, Ukpai, Okonkwo, Oritsejafor, Akinola, Abiara, Makinde, Oyedepo and others. That is why that country is still intact; I am talking to you spiritually now. That grace will soon be removed and you wait and see.

Do you mean the Niger Delta crisis? You think it will not be contained?

A more deadly crisis is in the offing, in fact, there will soon be series of crises that those who are milking Nigeria will be taken aback. That country will soon divide, mark my words. I want you to go and note this interview. It shan’t be long.

Are you saying there is nothing that can be done to reposition Nigeria?

Not in the current situation, not the way the few cabal destroying that country is burring its head in the sand like the proverbial ostrich pretending all is well. The nucleus and life wire of Nigeria is oil; very soon, that spigot won’t pump oil any more. Meanwhile, people in the Western world will not need oil anymore. You live here in the United States and you know what I am talking about. Nigeria is not the giant of Africa. I don’t know where we got this funny idea from, at best, Nigeria is a big for nothing country. If population is what a nation needs to become a world leader, China and India should have been world leaders. Nigeria swaggers on the world stage as the giant of Africa because oil is a powerful tool in international political power equation. Those days will soon be over and by the time the leaders have nothing to steal any more, the party will soon be over. If those curmudgeons in Nigeria have senses, they should read and read the speech President Obama delivered in Accra, Ghana last week.

Do you think General Ibrahim Babangida will ever be brought to book?

As long as he stays in Nigeria, fly to Monaco where most of his loot is hidden and Switzerland. But we are waiting for him in America. All the houses he and Abacha and their cronies bought in Arizona, Washington DC, Texas and Virginia through fronts are under watch. We are waiting for him to step into the US soil. There are tons of documents we have on him and we’re waiting for the day he will enter America. Don’t ask me who are the “they.” I won’t say more than that.