Major Seun Fadipe (retd) was Chief Security Officer to the late Lt-Gen Oladipo Diya, former Chief of General Staff and second-in-command to the late military Head of State, Gen Sani Abacha.
In this encounter with Saturday Sun, Fadipe narrated hitherto unknown details about the December 1997 Coup for which Diya and a number of military Generals were tried and sentenced to death.
He insisted that the incident was not a phantom coup, contrary to the story that it was cooked up to witch-hunt some military generals then. Fadipe, narrated how he was brought into the planning of the coup, plans by the coup plotters to abduct Abacha and force him to resign, plans to take out Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (retd) who was the Chief Security Officer to Abacha, as well as the plan to use maximum force to oust Abacha, which would have resulted in many casualties.
He also spoke on reasons the coup failed, Fadipe, who was the all-round best graduating cadet in the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in his set, narrates how he was left with nothing after his release and how he had to start from scratch, as well as the persecution suffered by his wife and children.
Can you tell us about what motivated you to join the military?
My journey into the military was by accident. When I finished secondary school and in my set then, I had the best result. I could not get admission to any tertiary institution. Then, I went to join my mum at my stepfather’s place in Kaduna. My stepfather was a soldier. But he did not indirectly put me in the Nigerian Army, I was working at the Command and Staff College as a clerical officer.
Most times, I would follow him to play squash. On this fateful day, I went with him to the Police Academy in Kaduna. He had to play with one of his retired bosses, one Col. Pam. After the game, the moment we got outside, the man asked: ‘Paul, what is your boy doing now?’ Paul is the first name of my stepfather. He just told him: ‘He works in Command and Staff College as a clerk.’
The man became livid and said: ‘Paul, why are you exposing this boy to money at this tender age? And didn’t he pass his WAEC?’ My stepfather answered: ‘Sir, he passed, and he even has one of the best results.’ His retired boss went further: ‘Why didn’t he go to the higher institution?’ and my stepfather said ‘No admission. ‘He then said: ‘Let him go and join the academy.’ My stepfather then said: ‘He doesn’t want to go sir.’
But for me, I could not remember when we discussed that. For the first time, I just voiced out. I said ‘Sir, I don’t know why he and my mum did not want me to go into the army.’ That was my response to the senior officer.
Then, there was a serving Major with them that day. The Lieutenant Colonel told the Major to get me a form to try my luck in the academy. The Major was working with my stepfather at the Nigerian Army School of Infantry, while I was at the Command and Staff College. It was the same location. The Major just said, don’t worry, I will give your dad the form for you.
After about two weeks, I didn’t get anything from my stepfather. One afternoon during break, I left my office and walked straight to the Major’s office to get the form. He brought out the forms for me. I filled one and submitted. I passed the entrance exams. In fact, I came first in the Old Oyo State. I went for the interview, and it was the same thing.
So, I found myself in the Nigerian Defence Academy on the 14th of July 1981. But, it was not a pre-planned arrangement for me to go into the army.
You said after your secondary education, you went to stay with your mother and stepfather in Kaduna. What happened to your biological father?
I lost my biological father in 1966. I am the first child, and I have two other sisters. Apparently, my second sister was eight months old when our father died. He was a headmaster.
You were the best cadet in your set at Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). How did you achieve the feat?
Well, I will just say commitment and dedication. Let me just point out something here; my mum and my stepfather, one way or the other, maybe they were afraid of me joining the army. My mum, especially, was scared of me dying. So, that was why they did everything to prevent me from joining the army. When it was obvious that I was not listening to them, and I was about to leave, my stepfather threatened me that ‘we have been trying to dissuade you from going to the academy, you did not listen. If you run away from the academy, you are not coming back here. Just look for somewhere else and go.’
When I got to the academy, although the training was fierce, I had already made up my mind that I was not going to run away. I just stayed put. I was committed to whatever that happened. I told myself that ‘if it means dying here, I have to die. But I will make it.”
This was coupled with the fact that God has blessed me before. My brilliance did not start from NDA. Let me tell you something interesting. God has plans for everyone.
At CAC Primary School, Irefin, Ibadan, Primary One, Two and Three, I was coming last in class. I think he told the headmistress that ‘I have one boy in my class. The boy is brilliant. But I think something is wrong with the boy. The boy comes last in the class for the three terms in Primary One, the three terms in Primary Two and the three terms in Primary Three, making a total of nine terms.’
If not for Providence, they would have just forgotten about me. Then I found myself living with my uncle. He’s my mum’s younger brother in Osogbo. I think he worked with the Western State Government. He was in the Ministry of Education. The man just took me to Salvation Army School in Okefia in Osogbo. He handed me over to my class teacher. The class teacher in turn now kept me with the most brilliant students in the class at that time. They told me whatever this boy does, just do it because my handwriting was bad and everything about me was just hopeless. But that term, my situation, my fortune changed.
I began to understand things. In fact, in school, my handwriting became the best. So, from primary four to primary six, I was the one that was even writing the register for teachers.
When I left Osogbo back to Ibadan, admission had closed for that year in 1974. So, I went to CAC Modern School in Anlugbua, at Bashorun, Ibadan. It was a model school then. I think it’s Oba Akinyele Memorial High School, So, right there, first term, I came first. Second term, I came first.
But at the NDA, it wasn’t all about academic work?
It was about academics, personal and physical quality. You would do other drills such as obstacle crossing, weapon handling, everything encompassing. If I was faking whatever I was getting, or if I was being aided, while I was there, it would have been tough for me.
But this thing has been part of me. So getting into the military proper after training shouldn’t be a big deal. I actually imbibed those trainings, and the training was part of me.
So getting to the unit right now, I should be able to exhibit those things that I’ve learned in training.
How did you get into the Gen Sani Abacha government?
When I was commissioned, I opted to go to the Nigerian Army Ordnance Corps. Although a lot of senior officers, even my men, were not happy with me, because they believed that being the best all-round cadet at that time, why should I go to Ordnance? In those days, everybody would be like, once you get to Ordnance, you are going to steal.
You are going to be selling blankets and all these things. And honestly, at the time, I got crazy that, look, Nigerian Army Ordnance Corps is still part of the services to the Nigerian Army. So, if you say, because I’m the best graduating cadet, I shouldn’t go to Ordnance, then, should all those that did not do well go to Ordnance?
When I got into the unit, I made up my mind that I’m not in Ordnance to steal clothing or to make money. So, I chose to go to the ammunition part of the Ordnance. In Ordnance, you have the stores and the ammunition. Except I want to go there and be stealing ammunition, and I’ll be stealing weapons -an easy way to jail. I finished 1984, got posted to Ordnance Corps. I had my Basic Ordnance Officers training in 1986.
So in 1987, I chose to go to the ammunition, and again, I went to specialise at the Ammunition and Armaments Technical Officer’s Course in Ojo. The training school was in Ojo Cantonment.
But later in life, I was a bit frustrated. When I finished my basic course, the commandant then, he’s late now, promised that the first two officers would be sent abroad to either Pakistan or to the United Kingdom. And to God be the glory, I came first in that basic course.
And I was not sent abroad. Another person was sent abroad. I took it calmly. Now, after my specialised course too, in 1987, the same promise came, maybe to motivate us. I came first too. In fact, the person that was sent abroad came third. So, from there, I was posted to Port Harcourt.
I wanted to leave the Ordnance Corps. But it was Colonel Abutu Garba then – he left as a Major General, he was our General Officer Commanding (GOC) in 82 Division. I booked an appointment to meet with him, and the man gave me an audience. I told him I wanted to change corps. I told him I wanted to go to the Artillery Corps.
The man just looked at me. I was a Captain then. I was promoted captain in 1989. But it was around 1991 that I went to the GOC, because he was an artillery officer. I wanted him to help me out from Ordnance to the Artillery.
He said, look, young man, let me advise you right now. According to what you have told me, you have done all your courses in Ordnance, except the final exams, the final course. Ordnance is a specialised arm. Artillery that you want to go to is another specialised arm of the Nigerian Army. Now, before you know what is happening, you’ll become a Major, and going into artillery right now, you have to start all over again.
He said, if I advise you, go to the infantry. You have done infantry courses. You have done your specialised courses. So, going to the infantry, you are not going to miss out on anything. You just have to continue from where you have stopped, unlike the artillery. He said, I will allow you to go back, think about it, and come back.
It was during this period that I was told that I had the DMI (Directorate of Military Intelligence) interview. Even my course mate called me, General Wilbert. We were Captains then. He said I saw your name for the DMI’s interview. What did you do? I said, well, I am so confident that I have not done anything untoward, but you are there. Let me find out what my offence is.
Once you are called for DMI’s interview, you know you have run foul, one way or the other. I said, I have no fear. I have not done anything.
So, it was the second day that one Major Abbas, who died in the 1992 Ejigbo crash. He was the officer in charge of the Intelligence Detachment in the Second Brigades, Lagos.
He called me and said Fadipe , I have sent your name to DMI because now, the majority of intelligence officers are leaving for this course, and the intelligence has a dearth of officers, and they said they should poach officers from other units into the intelligence corps. Or don’t you want it? I said, sir, thank you very much.
I was happy. I just said, well, that shows God has approved of my leaving the Ordnance Corps. So, the letter came formally, and I went for the interview. That’s where we were told that they are taking us from where we are. I think about 20 officers went for that interview. I think only eight or 10 of us were selected to join the intelligence corps, and I finally left the Ordnance Corps in March or April 1992. I was doing my final course in Ordnance at that time. In fact, I wanted to finish that course before joining, but it’s like I was summoned from DMI headquarters, because Ordnance didn’t want to release me to go into the Intelligence Corps.
In fact, it was the Chief of Army Staff then, Gen Salihu Ibrahim that had to step in, whether Ordnance or Intelligence, it’s still Nigerian Army, that they should release me to go.
When I got to the intelligence corps, I was posted to Five Night Group, which is Five Nigerian Army Intelligence Group, supporting Lagos Garrison Command (LGC) then. My first commander there was Lieutenant Colonel Azazi, the National Security Adviser (NSA) that died in that crash. I thank God that I passed through that man as my mentor in the intelligence corps.
Now, my joining the intelligence late actually was the criteria for me that made me join the then Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Oladipo Diya. When Gen Diya was appointed as the Chief of Defence Staff, he was qualified to have a Security Officer.
But the man did not like the Intelligence people. In those days, when you see an intelligence officer or soldier, you need to be extra careful. Then, people were so scared of those in the Intelligence Corps.
So, the man appointed an infantry officer as his security officer. And this Military Assistant (MA), Lt-Col Shoda, told him, sir, you cannot appoint an infantry man as your security officer. If he’s just doing normal protection, fine. It’s not that you cannot appoint him. But when it comes to the intelligence aspect, the intelligence community will not relate with him because he’s not one of them.
So, I think the man just said, well, go and get anybody, but I don’t want anyone that is already involved in intelligence politics. According to what the MA told me later, he said he remembered that he worked with my stepfather in 82 Division in Enugu, and he knew I used to be in the Ordnance.
He said he now remembered that I had transferred into the Intelligence Corps. He believed that in these two years, I wouldn’t have been deep into intelligence politics. But he didn’t know where I was.
So, one of these days, in my unit there at LGC Kofo Abayomi, the younger brother came into that place. I think he was looking for admission for one of his children into Command Secondary School. I came out of my office and the man saw me. He shouted. I was even embarrassed. He said his brother, Col Shoda, had been looking for me. He gave me Col Shoda’s number. I went back into the office and called him. He said he’s in Defence Headquarters and I should come to see him immediately.
I went to see him and the first question he asked me was, do you want to work for my boss? I said, sir, if you find me worthy, why not? He said, well, what is qualifying you now is this: my boss does not want somebody that has been long in intelligence because he said he does not like their ways of life. He said there were two other officers that had been lobbying to become the security officer, but he knew that they were not qualified. So, if you don’t mind, send me your CV. Then, I’ll take it from there. That was how I was picked as the security officer.
A lot of intelligence officers were not happy with me because they said, why should I come from nowhere and take the shine off them? In fact, someone still told me just last year when I went to the Retired Military Officers and Navy Association (RANAO) in Ibadan, that I came from nowhere and I became the security officer to Chief of Defence Staff. He even accused me that I had not done my basics before I went there. I told him, look, you are still talking about something over 30 years ago. That was how I found myself working with General Diya. This was in September 1993 and by November, himself and Gen Sani Abacha took over from Chief (Ernest) Shonekan. And again, he retained me as his security officer. That was how I found myself working in the military council there. I was 32 years old.
What role did you play in ousting the Interim National Government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan?
What role would a security officer play? I was just an errand boy. Let’s say I was fortunate to be at the villa at that time. My boss did not want to go with me to Abuja. He just told me on the 16th of November 1993 that he was travelling to Abuja in the morning, but I would not be going with him. But the bodyguards would go with him and the ADC. They would make the arrangements. But as I was leaving this office, he told me, go and meet Hamza, who was a Captain then too. The same Hamza Al-Mustapha. My boss said, go and meet Hamza and ask him if you can go with us tomorrow.
I went to him and said Oga sir, my boss said I should ask you if I will be travelling with you tomorrow. And the man said, if you are not travelling, who else is going? No, you will be going with us now. So, before I left, he picked up the intercom and called Oga himself.
So by the time I got to Oga’s office, Oga said he had spoken with him. Then, Oga said you and the ADC will follow me tomorrow. So, that’s how best I would say I was involved in that.
So you did not know what was going to happen?
I did not know because people don’t discuss things like that, except they want you to play a particular role. If you are not to play any role, and if that thing had failed that day, I wouldn’t have any excuse, because I was with them at the villa. But I was not given any particular role.
Can you briefly share your experience in the federal military government?
My major role was to protect my boss and his family, and I know I did that to the best of my ability. Again, it was my duty to share intelligence from other agencies such as the SSS, the Air Force, the Army, and the Navy, with my boss. My role there was just protection of my principal in and outside the office, in and outside the nation.
The 1997 coup, was it real or phantom; What actually happened?
Well, let me paint a scenario for you. Assuming I come to you and say, I saw gold somewhere in one office, and I think we can steal the gold, and it will make so much money for us, and you agree with me? You now have someone in your office that you want to join us to steal the gold. We agree and we plan everything on how to steal the gold. On my own, I now decide to report to you that you have asked us to go and steal that gold in the office. The day myself, yourself and your partner that you are bringing to this now, decide to go and steal the gold, we were arrested. Is that phantom or real? It is real, only that it has not been executed. Exactly, that’s what happened.
I didn’t wake up one morning and said, oh, Fadipe, I want to plan a coup, because I really know the implication. If a coup fails, you know it’s death. So, you should make up your mind in delving into this. In fact, when General Olusegun Obasanjo was arrested and was jailed, I remember I was with Mohammed Abacha, Captain Yahya, and some of his friends who were discussing. They asked me a question, Major, please, is it true that General Obasanjo actually took part in that coup? And I said, well, I wouldn’t know. But the intelligence and the military police and the intelligence community that have investigated it should know better.
I said, but it is very dangerous when you are in a circle and they are discussing things pertaining to coup plots. I said, if any of those people are arrested tomorrow, they might trace it back to you because you were there when they were discussing it. If, by accident, somebody mentioned it to you, whether you have agreed to take part or not, if that person is arrested and you have been monitored, then you can’t really wriggle out of it.
One of them asked me a question. He said, okay, what about you? If you are in a gathering and you feel that they are discussing something like that, what would you do? I would say, gentlemen, excuse me, and I would just leave that gathering immediately. And since that time, they have called me gentlemen. Once I sit around where they mentioned things like that, I would just bolt away.
But this particular 1997 coup, I couldn’t do that. Like what the tribunal chairman told me; Fadipe, you are a Major and you are not a junior officer, you are a middle level officer. You should know your right from your left, and that what I should have done was to report my boss. And I told him that I wouldn’t betray my boss for anything. He confided in me, so I wouldn’t betray him.
On that morning, that Tuesday, 9th of December, 1997, Monday before then, there was a Chief of Army Staff Conference in Enugu. And the Head of State, Abacha, was supposed to be there. At that time, I didn’t know anything that transpired.
But the only thing is that Oga (Diya) said I should be monitoring the Head of State if he left and when he got to Enugu. But the man had left, and the advance party had gone to Enugu. The man truly left the office, and after a while, the man came back into the villa. So, I went to Oga, I said, well, the C-in-C left already, but he came back. He said, what really happened? I said, I don’t know. I said, maybe you should go to Oga and ask him. Then, he said, okay, don’t worry, I will find out what happened.
So, around evening time, Bamaiyi just entered the office. I said to myself: Ah, Bamaiyi is the Chief of Army Staff. He’s supposed to be in Enugu. So, what is he doing here in Abuja? He stayed with my boss for like 20 to 30 minutes and left.
Immediately after he left, Oga called me. He said, call me General Adisa. Then, Adisa had been removed as the Minister of Works and Housing as at that time. Himself and General Olanrewaju, but they had not been retired and they had not been given a new portfolio. They were just floating.
So, I called Gen Adisa and he came in almost immediately, wearing a mufti. He was with my oga for 10 to 20 minutes and came out. Then, the man was just trying to ask me some questions that were alien to me. The man discovered that I was not in the know or whatever. So the man said, okay, Fadipe, don’t worry. I will see you later, or come and see me at home later, and he left.
Then, on Tuesday morning, when we got to the office, the C-in-C left and Oga (Diya) called me back and I gave him the normal briefing.
Then he said, you Fadipe, all you intelligence and security people, you guys don’t know anything o! I said, I don’t understand, sir. He said, you said everything is okay. I said, yes, everything is well, sir. He said, do you know that if Oga, that is the C-in-C, had travelled to Enugu yesterday, he would have been abducted and there would have been a change of power?
Ah! Immediately, he told me that I knew I was in trouble. I just knew it. So, I said, sir, by who? He said, by the service chiefs.
I said, who and who are involved in this? He said, all the service chiefs and the GOCs. Ah! Then I asked him, sir, why? He said he didn’t want the man to transmute himself into civilian president.
Ah! Oh my God! Why did this man tell me this? Because immediately, I’m already complicit!
Then, I asked how that would have happened? He said, if the man had gone there, the way they removed Chief Shonekan would have been the way it would have been done. In removing Shonekan, they just got into the office, and forced him to resign. He said, that’s what they would have done to Abacha. They would have abducted him and forced him to resign.
He said, Fadipe, listen here. He said, we have been on this thing for some time, it has not leaked. He said, if it leaks now, you are the one, and I will not spare you. I will hold you responsible.
So, that now complicated my fear. Throughout that day, I couldn’t work, I couldn’t do anything. I was confused.
The good thing about me is that, anything I want to do, I will pray. I said, this one is beyond me now. I have one lady evangelist. She has a prophetic ministry. The lady was in my church then.
So, the moment I closed that day, around 10.30pm or 11pm, I drove straight to that woman’s house at Ado, after Maraba. That’s where the lady lived at that time, and the woman just got married.
When she saw me in the middle of the night like that, she said, Baba, I hope all is well? I said, all is well. But, my boss discussed something with me this morning, and I’ve never had time to rest.
So, she took me to her prayer room, and I told her what transpired between me and my boss before the evening. She said, sir, okay, no problem. Let us pray.
So, she held my hand and we were praying. Then the woman began to release the bombshell. She said, sir, I can’t see your boss on the throne. And at the same time, Abacha is not on the throne too.
That is a stalemate. I mean, telling me that my boss was not going to be on the throne, that showed that that coup would fail. That was the implication. And again, God is telling her that this situation will end in the sixth month of next year (1998). And that although nobody will die, six of you will go down.
She spoke Yoruba, saying “Ko si eni to maa kuo, sugbon eyin mefa maa lo si” What is this woman saying? That is a failed one. She said nobody will die. That is a death sentence. I just said this woman just wanted me to leave her alone, in order not to implicate her. So, I left her place.
But I just held on to the word that nobody will die. She said God is telling her that this thing is part of His plan for Nigeria; that whether I take part or not, this thing will happen. I left her more confused. But I just held on to the word that nobody will die.
I got back home. Honestly, I was not myself. Then, the following day, Oga asked me to set up a meeting in one of his guest houses.
So, Bamaiyi, the late Patrick Aziza, then the two COs we had in the Brigade of Guards, both in Keffi and inside Abuja. All these things are in my memoirs now, which will be released by the middle of this year by the grace of God. The names and everything are in my memoir.
So, we had that meeting. And that’s why I said, when somebody said it was a phantom coup, I don’t understand it. But we had that meeting there. And when Bamaiyi was briefing the house, although I was just there as an observer, I didn’t contribute anything. I was just sitting there, listening to what he was saying. Then, General Adisa stopped him. He said, ‘look, Ishaya, your plan is so watery. This is not the first time we are doing this thing. I didn’t see any substance in what you are saying.
Then, my boss shut him down. He said in Yoruba, ‘A.K leave these boys alone. Are you the one planning it? Are they not the ones planning it by themselves? Leave them alone!’ Gen. Adisa was trying to tell Oga (Diya) that what this man (Bamaiyi) was saying, he did not see any substance in it. Let’s take over this thing and plan it the right way. So, my boss shut him down. He said, ‘you don’t have troops. You don’t have anybody. So, why are you talking? Just keep quiet.’
When we got to the office the next morning, I told Oga that what General Adisa was saying yesterday was right. One, the plan of these people is that they wanted to carry out that operation against the C-in-C. They are talking about using an RPG to blow up his car. Do you know the casualties that will be there? And that’s why Gen. Adisa was saying that the operation was faulty and would not work. At this time, if there was a coup and people died, Nigerians will not support it. Then, we don’t need that level of destruction to remove General Abacha. Then, the question he asked me, he said, you, what do you think? I said fine. The only threat I see in this is Major Mustapha. If we can take Mustapha away, in one way or the other, then it will be simpler, because General Adisa had already assured us. I will not want to mention the two officers’ names, although it’s over now.
Two of them were in the villa, and General Adisa had spoken to us that he had already brought them over to his side. I said, okay, if that is the case.
But there was a kind of politics that people called ‘Five Fingers of Leprosy’ or something like that then. My boss was even the chairman of the committee preparing for Abacha’s transmutation. And they were holding the meeting in my boss’ house. And most times, my Oga would call Mustapha to the house. I’ve studied Major Mustapha.
In the night, he drove alone. He would drive a bulletproof car alone with nobody around him. He had come to our house more than two times like that. He would drive in and drive out. I said, sir, you can send for Major Mustapha. From there, leave it to me and my boys. There is a way we can pick him. And when we pick him then, the infantry people will continue with their own.
I told you, the two COs who are supposed to be fully involved. So, if that has happened, the only problem is the strike force and the bodyguards. Then, those two other officers, we can use them to silence those ones.
The infantry at the outer gate will block them in. He said it sounds logical. And that’s what actually made my involvement deeper in the same plot.
Unfortunately for me, that plan could not hold. I already set in motion how to pick Mustapha. My closest boy, out of all the boys, was the only one that knew we were plotting something. The other ones did not know. But Mustapha is a smart person. He knew something was going on.
Let me now digress a bit. Why Gen. Diya said it was a phantom coup was that after their plan had failed, up until that Monday, Bamaiyi and his group now thought, maybe something had happened, especially maybe Gen. Diya had betrayed them. What they wanted to do was to take over from both Abacha and Diya at the same time.
So if they had actually gone to Diya, they just wanted to use him as a decoy. That’s why Gen. Diya might call it a phantom coup. If God had not intervened, they would have removed Diya, they would have also removed Abacha. That was the plan of Bamaiyi, Magashi, and the late Aziza. Those three were the main brains behind the plots.
So, Gen. Diya, on his own, as at that Monday, I don’t think he had already betrayed him. It was after they went to meet Abacha, that Diya asked them to plan a coup. So, everything they were doing from the time I joined, the government knew about it.
What they wanted, according to General Sabo, he’s late now, is that when Aziza told him about the plot, he never believed him, because they had been monitoring Bamaiyi and his group, trying to take over power. But when that deep twist came, I was out. I remembered that anytime I briefed my Oga about the movement that Bamaiyi was planning, he was not excited. He was like, ‘this boy cannot do this thing without being caught.’ But this time around, he didn’t know that they had gone to report him to the Head of State. Like Sabo said, the Head of State, General Abacha, never believed them. But when they began to put pressure, General Sabo said what he wanted to do, that is Abacha, was to retire Diya.
They would call all the elders in Yorubaland and say, ‘I trusted your son. He was a friend. He betrayed me. Just carry him and go. Just take him away.’ According to Sabo, the plan was to make Adisa the Chief of Army Staff, Olanrewaju, Chief of General Staff, and Bamaiyi would be Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). But they would make him redundant because, at that time, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abdulsalami, was about to retire.
If that was carried out, Bamaiyi and his group would have lost out in the power play. But they didn’t give up easily. They put more pressure. They said if Abacha carried out what he wanted to do, then the Yoruba people would not trust him. That was why they now brought me in. They didn’t bring me in directly. According to Sabo, he told Omenka, the Commander, Security Group then. They were the ones to play along with Bamaiyi and the group. He said, call Fadipe and brief him about the operation, so that Fadipe will not jeopardise whatever they are doing around my boss. He said Omenka said something that sir, if you tell Fadipe about this plot, the plot will fail because Fadipe is blindly loyal to his boss. He will betray us for his boss. He said one thing about Fadipe, Fadipe does not lie. That they should find a way of Fadipe joining that plot, naturally.
So it was the same people that told Bamaiyi to tell Diya to involve Fadipe in this thing, that Fadipe is the only member of his staff that he trusts, and can operate with. And according to them, Diya bought it. And that was what Diya told me. Like I told you, they’ve been on this thing since around August. Although we occasionally saw funny moments. You know when things are going on. But if you are not called to it directly, and like I said, I was not ready to betray my boss for anything, because there were some movements I saw in those days that it was enough for me to have reported. But I just pretended as if I didn’t see anything.
So, the morning he (Diya) told me, it was not really a surprise because I knew what they had been doing. But he’s just telling me now, which was not good for me. So, that was how the whole thing happened. So, with what I’ve narrated now, you should be able to deduce whether it was phantom or it was real.
You said Al-Mustapha is smart. What did you mean, and what do you know about the bomb blast at the Presidential Wing of Abuja Airport in December 1997?
Why I said Al-Mustapha is smart is this. He knew something was going on and he was not getting it. I think he just wanted to get rid of Gen. Diya. And that’s why the bomb incident on the 13th happened. He knew Bamaiyi and his group were being economical with the truth. And he knew that if the so-called head of the coup plot is out of the way, let’s see how the others will continue the plot.
On the 13th of December 1997, there was a bomb attack against us. If not for providence, although I would have been alive, maybe I would be serving one long sentence in jail.
I was not supposed to travel with my boss that morning. And imagine, apart from when I went for my promotion exam for one month in 1994, there was nowhere this man would go that I did not go with him. How come the only time I did not go with him now, the plane was bombed? So, how would I tell the whole world that I did not know about it? So actually that day, apart from Diya and other people dying, I would have been deeply implicated. Nobody would believe me. Do you get what I’m saying now? But God saved us.
There was this flight sergeant, he was in the intelligence. I think the boy is from Edo or Delta. I wanted to bring him to work for me, but at that time, my boss said I had put a lot of non-Yoruba people in my team. And I told him, sir, security work has nothing to do with where you come from. You can earn the loyalty of anybody. Yes, it’s good. Sir, we’ve been working for you, I’ve been enjoying it. He said no, what I know is that you should stop recruiting non-Yoruba again. Okay, so I sent most of those boys away, especially this flight sergeant.
And I told him that look, everybody, on Friday come to the office. I’ll give you something for the weekend. And that boy comes on a regular basis and I’d give him something. Fortunately for me, that boy was the one on duty that day. When the two boys that were involved in that bomb blast came in to take over the plane, the boy did not release the plane to them because the plane was not assigned to the C-in-C or the First Lady. The boy knew that the plane was attached to the Chief of General Staff, and the two boys were not my boys. The boy knew almost all the boys working for me. So, he did not release the plane to them.
Unfortunately for those boys, the bomb had been primed. They sat down with the bomb in the car. That day, the pilot that was supposed to fly us that morning was nowhere to be found.
I called Oga Amosun, who later became Chief of Air Staff, whom I was relating with then as PAL – Presidential Air Lift. I called him. Sir, we are already behind schedule. He said well, he had assigned a pilot to us. I said Sir, we couldn’t find the plot. They found another pilot for us around 8:30am. The man positioned the plane. We would not leave the house until the plane was ready for us. So, as we drove into the presidential wing, the bomb went off. There was no abuse that my boss did not heap on me on that day and how incompetent I was. I said sir, this is not the first time that I am taking you out. But this is not my fault.
When that thing happened, he was still saying you are wasting my time. I have already told the Director of Protocol to get everybody ready.
I asked my boys to get what was going on there. The boys came to me and said sir, I think we should not travel again. I said what happened? He said those two boys are from the House.
I had to go there myself. One of them was blasted into pieces by the bomb. He was like mincemeat. The other boy was badly mutilated. He could not even cry. He was just writhing in pain. Then, I ordered my military police to take that boy straight to Gwagwalada Hospital. At the back of the brand new 505 then, were three cartons of money – Pounds, Dollars and Naira. But the Abuja Police Command took the boy from them. I told my boys I did not care, let them go with the money, although part of the money was already burnt also. The boy was taken to the Gwagwalada Hospital. I asked one of my operatives to stand with him. I called the GMD there, I told him what had happened and the boy must not die. We need to hear from him. That was how God helped us to escape that plan then.
Now, it couldn’t have been behind Major Mustapha. But what they told Abacha was that people were training with grenades. What kind of grenade is that? When Abacha called my boss to commiserate with him about what happened, he said he was briefed that they were training and it was a grenade that wrecked the havoc.
The blast was not really investigated. This is why I believed that they just wanted to remove Gen. Diya. Once Gen. Diya was dead, those who were planning the coup, what else would they be planning? Gen. Diya himself did not get justice because at the end of the day, he manipulated the whole story. They have used your paper to attack me about three times in the past, and one of the things they were telling them is that I was one of the people that planned that attack on Gen. Diya, that I was not at the airport on that day, that I had taken permission from my boss to travel.
But I was the only one that has the record of what happened that day. If you say this man was not there, how do you now want them to believe me? You can see the irony of life.
When I came out of detention, I think the then Inspector-General of Police, I did not know whether it was a directive from Gen Abdulsalami, said that they should pick me and interrogate me about the bomb blast, to tell them what I knew. I think Tunde Ogunsakin led the team that interviewed me at Alagbon Close. I was taken there, not that I was arrested. I was invited. They asked me about it, and I narrated everything that happened about that bomb blast.
When the man that I was working for was now saying a different thing, then who do we believe? If you put one evil finger on one person, the four other fingers will be pointing at you. Some people have been asking me why Gen. Diya did not get justice in the bomb blast. I said, yes he caused it, because trying to run me down has deprived him of justice.
What has been your fate after the whole incident? What did the military authorities do for you? And what have you been doing since then?
May the soul of General Victor Malu (former Chief of Army Staff) continue to rest in peace. He was the president of the military tribunal. He told me: ‘Fadipe, I will bring you back into service. Your mates are already Lt-Colonel. I will promote you and send you out for your Command and Staff College training. He said he would write for my reinstatement back into service.
In fact, the day the Military Secretary showed me the write up, on my own, I cried. I said God, it could only be you. He was supposed to take it to Army Council, for the council to approve my being reinstated back into service. But fortunately and unfortunately, God knows the best, that Army council did not hold. It was the time General Malu and the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo were having some underground issues. And before we knew what was happening, General Malu was removed. And that was why I couldn’t get back into the army.
So, from the army point of view, they actually tried for me. And for the nation also, I am grateful for the pardon. It was not done under Obasanjo. The late former President Umar Yar’Adua, who succeeded Obasanjo, was on the verge of granting us presidential pardon when he died.
Then, we continued the struggle with former President Goodluck Jonathan through the help of his ADC, Col Ojogbane Adegbe. By 2015, we were granted presidential pardon. I think he signed the presidential pardon in April, shortly before he handed over.
So, prior to that time, I couldn’t do anything. I even ventured into politics. I was in PDP, and I vied for the chairmanship position of Ibadan North East Local Government Area of Oyo State. Then, one of my political leaders said I should go and queue up for my turn.
And I said, sir, queue up! Don’t you think I’m an asset to you? Do you know what the man said? He said, remember you are an ex-convict? They would have used that against me. So, I realised that these people, this is the way they are. I just left.
then that election for that year was put on hold for about three years. So, all those things discouraged me from going back into politics. So, I’ve been doing my normal security consultancy.
I do training, I install security equipment, access control. And if there’s any other legitimate business I see, I do. There are some military men that really helped me; the likes of General Tukur Buratai (former Chief of Army Staff), who was my immediate senior in NDA. One other important person, who helped me a lot is Gen Lucky Irabor as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS). He was my junior in NDA,.but he was so helpful to me.
But the first person that actually stabilised my life’s Chief Mrs. Remi Olowu.
As at the time I came out of detention, I had no house, I had nothing, apart from the car given to us by IBB. That was the only car I had.
My wife too would have lost her job because the military people were looking for her to pick her up. Once you are involved in a coup plot, anything close to you, they will pick it up.
In fact, I knew what I was going into. So, I sent my wife away from Abuja. She wanted to attend her younger sister’s graduation at Leeds University in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, the two of them have gone to be with the Lord right now.
So, I didn’t want her to go initially because my three children were still young. I told you that my father died in December 1966 when my second sister was like eight months old. The same thing now. It was another December, I was about to die now. And my own third child, my second daughter too, was about eight months old. It would have been a satanic cycle.
So, I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted my wife to just go to London and remain there. Unfortunately, before they got to the embassy, the embassy had closed for the year. So, she wanted to come back to Abuja. I said, no, stay back in Ibadan. Don’t stay with my mum, go to your dad’s place. My wife asked me if I was sure something was not wrong? So, when I was arrested, they went after her. Thank God, she was able to escape and she was in hiding for six months until Abacha died. When she came out of hiding, they already sacked her from the office at Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC). The MD of NDIC then, Mr. John Ebhodaghe, was picked. The old man was in Jos for interrogation for about two weeks, before they realised that the man heard nothing about how my wife left.
They thought my wife was outside the country. But she was right within. Thank God for her family. By the time the MD came back, my wife had been sacked. When my wife came out of hiding, she went to the office to pack her things and to just thank the MD and apologise for what he went through for her sake. So, after she had packed her personal effects from the office, she went to the MD office and said, ‘I’m sorry about what you went through because of me. I’m leaving now.’ And the man asked her, where are you going to? The woman said: Sir, I’ve been sacked. Sacked? So, he called the Director of Personnel. He said, why would you punish this woman for the same offence her husband is being punished for? The husband is in jail. And for the same reason, you want to sack this woman? How do you want her to survive? How do you want the children to survive? Take your sack letter back, reinstate her, and pay her all her money since she has been away from work.” Providence. So, apart from that, at the time I came back, there was nothing.
But that Chief Mrs Olowu was the first person that stabilised me. She was the DG of NEMA then. It was through Mrs. Olowu that I was able to rent a house from the job she gave me. I went through hell that time.
But later, Chief James Ibori, former governor of Delta State, took over. After I came out of prison, I did not meet him until 2001. He was looking for me and he couldn’t find me. Eventually, he saw me. In fact, God used him to actually stabilise me.
I’m not saying I am a saint. But I try as much as possible to live a life of loyalty. I believe that if I work for someone, at the end of the day, that person should remunerate me one way or the other. So I was not looking right, I was not looking left. All I was looking for was the safety of my boss. So, by the time I realised I was living in a fool’s paradise, it was too late. I came out of detention. I had nothing. Up till now, people never believed. At that period, I had one small bungalow in Ibadan. It used to be my father’s place. I renovated the place. And that was the only place I lived with my mom and my siblings.
But I thank God for my course mates. Majority of them were relating with me, and my seniors. I know that I would not hold anybody guilty if they didn’t want to relate with me. Felony was still on my neck. Still, some people would still be doing eye service. Some people would be monitoring where they were not supposed to be monitoring. And people didn’t want to get caught that they saw them with Fadipe. I went through hell, but I thank God for some of my course mates. May God bless them. They rallied round me.
If you have the opportunity to come back to this world, will you still join the military? Can you allow your children to join the military?
By the grace of God, that will be the only service I will join. But this time around, maybe I will be wiser. And I have not stopped my children from joining the military.
I have only one son and I have two girls. The mother, before she died, when the boy was going to the university, she said he should go to the NDA. The boy said no. Even after his 200-Level, she said, look, you can still go now. My son said: ‘No. Mummy, stop disturbing me. I don’t want to go. Do you want me to join the army, and they would now do what they did to my father to me?’
So, I stopped him. I said nobody did anything to me. If I stayed where I was supposed to stay, that would not happen to me. I said the army did not do anything to me. I caused it myself.
Up till now, the majority of the junior ones that did not even meet me in NDA are still very good to me.
When I was doing my master’s programme in NDA at that time, one of my classmates then, a young man said, ‘Sir, are you O.O. Fadipe? I said that is me, At that time, the majority of them did not know I was a retired person in my postgraduate class. So he said, sir, I went to the library to look for a book and I saw everywhere, O.O. Fadipe. I said, yes, this is me.
He was a Brigadier-General then and he said he encountered my name first as a cadet, and he had been eager to meet with me. He said since he left the academy, he was using me as a measure to become what he became. Imagine, he wanted to meet me as a cadet. I did not meet him, he did not have the opportunity to meet me until he became a Brigadier-General.
So, those in the military, serving now, I was already a very senior officer before most of them came out from NDA. But the way they still treat me is amazing. So, would I say the military has done something wrong to me? No.
The military has not done anything wrong to me. Most of them have seen that I was just a victim of circumstance and that it could have been anybody. They still treat me well up till today. One or two of them might say, don’t mind the man. You cannot rule out things like that. But the Nigerian Army has not done anything against me.
Credit: The Sun