Abacha’s death: Bamaiyi Accuses OBJ, Abdulsalami Of Cover-Up

Barely 19 years after the demise of a former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, a key player in his government and a former Chief of Army Staff in that regime, Lt.- Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi has revealed that the deceased may not have died of natural causes. Abacha died on June 8, 1998 at the Ask Rock Villa, Abuja, but controversies have continued to trail his death till date. A conspiracy theory has it that he was poisoned and eliminated by a powerful group within the military while another has it that he may have died of cardiac arrest while frolicking with an unknown lady of easy virtue.

The successor government, however, announced then that he died of natural causes. However, Bamaiyi, who was one of Abacha’s loyalists, have said that only God and those responsible would be able to tell the cause of his death and provide details of where and how he died. Bamaiyi broke his silence on the matter over the weekend in a book he authored and titled: Vindication of a General. In Chapter 9 of the book, Bamaiyi disputed the official report on the death of Abacha and accused the General Abdulsalami Abubakar’s government, as well as the government of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of covering up the real cause and circumstances of the death of Abacha.

“I am one of those who do not believe Abacha’s death was natural. It causes more jubilation than sorrow for many people. Al the leads that would have been investigated were not followed. The sentence, “We killed Abacha” was discovered in one security officer’s house in his own handwriting, but the matter was not investigated because anything that had to do with Abacha was evil to the Obasanjo government, regardless of the fact that their actions were worse than those of the Abacha’s government,” he said. The former COAS disclosed that the manner in which key officials of the Abacha government were summoned to Aso Rock before the news of his death was broken was suspicious.

“Failure by officers in the Villa to inform the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of the death of the Commander-in- Chief on June 8, 1998 after keeping them waiting to see the C-in-C from Friday until his death on Monday is difficult to understand, especially when they were kept with some senior government officials waiting to see the C-in-C when the officers knew the C-in-C was dead.

It was questionable and suspicious,” he wrote. On why General Jerry Useni, the most senior military officer and next in rank to Abacha did not succeed the late C-in-C, Bamaiyi said that Useni was the last officer to be with Abacha when he died and there were many insinuations of his involvement in Abacha’s death. “They were mere insinuations; I believe Gen. Useni had no hand in Abacha’s death.

The second reason was that when politicians and some junior military officers were planning to make Abacha succeed himself, Gen. Useni was said to be too involved in the succession plan,” he said. The book also dealt with the much-celebrated Oputa Panel, Nigeria’s equivalent of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in postapartheid South Africa. Bamaiyi described the panel as a tool designed by former President Obasanjo to ridicule retired Generals of the Nigeria Army from the North. Unlike similar panels in other parts of the world, Bamaiyi said the Oputa Panel was neither meant to bring justice not true reconciliation.

Bamaiyi accused Obasanjo of acting in bad faith by allegedly setting out to deal with him (Bamaiyi) and some other northern military officers who were loyal to Abacha, the man who jailed Obasanjo over an alleged coup plot.

“Many Nigerians and non-Nigerians have been deceived about the reason for the Oputa Panel. I strongly believe that the Oputa Panel was not set up to bring peace to Nigeria, but to ridicule some former Heads of State of northern origin and prepare grounds for our conviction.

There is no comparison between our panel and that of South Africa which was sincere, from a God-fearing man who had good intentions. “The panel was only to ridicule people, including the panel members whose work was thrown into the waste basket.

I believe the Oputa Panel was set up by General Obasanjo to ridicule former Heads of State from the North and to show Nigerians how some of us who were known to be loyal to Abacha had allegedly killed Nigerians,” he said. Bamaiyi described the panel as a waste of time and resources, but added that he benefited from it as an individual as it gave him an opportunity to set the records straight in terms of all the accusations levelled against him.