₦airaland Forum

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

https://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/61637_468907232789_2414549_n.jpg

General Abdulsalam Abubakar

https://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/58971_468864827789_4300360_n.jpg

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

https://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/47109_468864122789_8241135_n.jpg

https://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/41338_468864582789_4225423_n.jpg

Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola

https://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/58774_468842517789_5319261_n.jpg

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/47911_468842897789_8296383_n.jpg

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/47546_468853717789_4528149_n.jpg

https://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/60065_468853977789_4158368_n.jpg

Morning break.

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

https://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/61090_468829457789_7056386_n.jpg

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

https://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/59439_468695502789_4156154_n.jpg

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

https://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/60242_468625187789_6897609_n.jpg

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

https://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/61205_468623612789_3078230_n.jpg

https://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/41059_468628722789_3701488_n.jpg

https://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/306375_10150406279997790_1850709215_n.jpg

Chief Tom Ikimi (Foreign Minister)

https://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/47352_468621707789_2781228_n.jpg

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

https://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/59241_468620132789_7881442_n.jpg

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

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/58545_468320167789_7216817_n.jpg

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

https://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/41318_468480907789_1319328_n.jpg

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

https://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/59074_468617637789_8067624_n.jpg

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

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

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

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

Testimony of Colonel Roland Emokpae


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

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

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

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

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

Lieutenant General Donaldson Oladipo Diya (Chief of General Staff)

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/47700_468295417789_4782294_n.jpg

Alhaja Kudirat Abiola

https://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/60427_468294362789_6098695_n.jpg

Chief MKO Abiola

https://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/59504_468267777789_989706_n.jpg

Major General Shehu Musa Yar'Adua

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/41228_467849022789_7667058_n.jpg

General Olusegun Obasanjo

https://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/46855_467820892789_1733961_n.jpg

Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/46929_465649537789_2836333_n.jpg

Saro-Wiwa: “You know I have a high court injunction restraining you from infringing my fundamental human rights. It’s not as it was in the past. Now, before you arrest me, you have to produce a warrant. You can’t just barge into my office or tap me on the shoulder on the highway or at the airport and expect me to follow you. Do you have a warrant of arrest”?

SSS agent: “We haven’t come to arrest you. We’re only inviting you to the office”.

Saro-Wiwa: “To drink tea or have lunch”?

https://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/59010_465484967789_2179477_n.jpg

In the wee hours of the morning, on Jan 2nd 1994, hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, policemen & SSS agents stormed the academy press in Lagos to seize all copies of Tell magazine that were there. Security agents had earlier raided Tell’s offices. They seized computers & other office equipment and about 50,000 copies of the magazine.

Academy press offices remained shut throughout the day. Newspapers, such as the Punch, that were printed at Academy press were not on the newsstands that day.

However, somehow, Tell magazine appeared on the newsstands (with the same front page headline story that the government was trying to suppress). They even ran an editorial criticising the actions of the government.

General Sani Abacha & Chief MKO Abiola (Behind them is Lt. Gen. Donaldson Oladipo Diya)

https://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/41009_465465082789_1249541_n.jpg

esere826: Why don't our scientists do some simple genetic tests to confirm the Benin yoruba controversy on their obas

The controversy is not about the origin of the Oba. There are many variations on the story, but let me quickly give two accounts, just to make things clearer.

1) (Lagos version) Olofin, an Awori from Isheri, who is also believed to be a son of Oduduwa founded Lagos. He and his sons founded a fisherman cooperative society called Aladejo, or Idejo for short. He made Ashipa, a yoruba man with a Benin wife, mediator between his quarrelling children. When Ashipa died, Olofin invited Addo, the son of Ashipa, to return from Benin to take up the role (after the quarrel between Olofin and the Oba of Benin had been resolved). The Idejo gave him land, a disused pepper farm, on which he built his house (Iga Idungaran - Palace on a pepper farm). When the Europeans arrived, they mistook the wealthy mediator (Oba of Lagos) for the king.

2) (Benin version): Oba Orhogbua of Benin had established a war camp (Eko) as a base for raids against Dahomey. He placed a viceroy, Aisikahienbore, over Lagos. When the viceroyy died, Edo, his son, succeeded him. The Oba had imprisoned Olofin (who originally lived on the land) in Benin. The Oba later released Olofin after Olofin promised to obey the viceroy. The yoruba corrupted both names to Ashipa and Ado.

These are just two versions of the story. There are more. However, all the stories agree on some basic facts. (1) The Oba of Lagos came from Benin. (2) The Idejo are awori descendants of Oduduwa. (3) The Oba of Lagos owns no land, except for the palace (Iga Idungaran). The Idejo own the land of Lagos (Onikoyi owns Ikoyi, Ojora owns Ijora, Oniru own Iru [Victoria Island+Maroko], etc).

Usually, when there's a war in Lagos, the war chiefs, who came from Benin with the Oba would stay and fight, while the Idejo would retire to their lands. The dual nature of the origin of Lagos has caused a lot of controversy in the past. Some chiefs have declared that the Oba has only limited authority over them, either because (1) they were also kings in Benin (eg Obanikoro), or (2) because they see the Oba as being merely a mediator.

General Sani Abacha (Head of State and Commander in Chief)

https://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/47523_465171867789_4341520_n.jpg

On November 17, 1993, General Sani Abacha, Secretary for Defence and Vice Chairman, ousted Chief Ernest Shonekan, then Chairman of the 82-day-old Interim National Government (ING), in order "to save Nigeria from imminent disintegration.”

It happened quickly and in broad daylight. All relevant military units and conspirators in Lagos, Abuja and Kaduna were quietly placed on alert. Under protective cover provided by a detachment of the National Guard led by Colonel Lawan Gwadabe, three very senior officers, motivated by different instincts and with no consensus on what would happen thereafter, flew to Abuja from Lagos. They calmly walked into Shonekan’s office at the Presidential Villa and asked that he resign. These officers were General Sani Abacha (Defence Secretary), Lt. General Oladipo Diya (Chief of Defence Staff), and Lt. Gen. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (Chief of Army Staff). Shonekan, the former United African Company (UAC) Executive, never had operational control of the Armed Forces during his controversial tenure. He wisely chose not to resist.

Chief Ernest Shonekan (Chairman, Interim National Government)

https://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/47767_465170702789_2846653_n.jpg

President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida

https://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/47098_465166877789_765115_n.jpg

https://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/41084_465168687789_1349218_n.jpg

https://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/46561_465169332789_7300712_n.jpg

Maryam Babangida (First Lady)

https://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/46093_465009372789_279601_n.jpg

Admiral Augustus Aikhomu (Chief of General Staff 1986-1991, Vice President 1991-1993)

https://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/40779_465004712789_3771180_n.jpg

1993 Presidential debate between Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPiFHzSi5X4

Ishilove: Reports have come out where claims are being made that the PM who was asthmatic died of an asthma attack when he was still in custody. Witnesses and some participants with a crisis of conscience claim his body was relatively intact and devoid of any external injury or trauma when it was discovered.

So who do we believe now?

We won't be able to say exactly what happened because we were not there, but Chief Mathew Tawo Mbu who put forward the asthma theory heard the story from someone who heard the story. The people who compiled the police report interrogated the people who took these actions (Ifeajuna et al). Adewale Ademoyega, who also stated that the PM was shot was detained in the same prison with his good friend Ifeajuna.