Donaldson Oladipo Diya, cocky, defiant, unrepentant and smug, went before the Okputa panel, hunting vindication for his part in the alleged 1997 coup.
In his filing for redemption and demand for restoration, not unaware of the massive change in the tide of public opinion angled to him and his fellow coupists, Diya implicated scores of retired and serving officers of the Nigerian Army Corps, who according to him, were not merely incidental to his downfall and disgrace, but actively plotted his demise.
Prominent on that list were;
- Ishaya Bamaiyi,
- Hamza Al-Mustapha,
- Patrick Azizza,
- Victor Malu and others.
In keeping with the spirit of the Okputa panel, Diya was given an uncommonly wide berth to come clean on his part in the grand scheme of debauchery of the Nigerian nation, apologize for traumatizing Nigeria and Nigerians, and move on with the rest of his life. Diya would have none of it.
Boldened by and led in examination by Kehinde Sofola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, his counsel, Diya popped all sorts of charges against Sani Abacha, his government and his vilified minions, the same government of which he, Oladipo Diya, is no bit actor.
Well, well, well, dead men don't talk. But the evils that men do live after them.
Ishaya Bamaiyi and Hamza Al-Mutsapha, Nigeria's premier villains du jour, came before the panel, assesorized in deserved hand and leg chains, to tell their story, varnished, and ladled with lawyer-speak (speak the truth only when you absolutely must, never when it may shed light for justice).
Diya did well confusing important issues with annoying asides.
He wants most of all, the restoration of his Lt. General rank. Next, he desperately want his seized properties back, which properties he could not account for in his known salary nor his open market investments. Everybody in Sani Abacha's government, except he Donaldson Oladipo Diya, was evil.
This was the same Oladipo Diya who was warned by Colonel Umar on the dangers of the assignment on which he was to embark when he gleefully co-opted and hoodwinked notable Yorubas into accepting the legitimacy of a coup de tat.
Going by Diya's testimony: He did not prostrate before Abacha, and even if he did, so what? Oladipo Diya, a man's word is his bond. It is easy to extrapolate Diya was good and prepared to deny he was "really not" in Sani Abacha's government if the panel would be so indulgent.
However, he alluded to: a "four point (demand of junior officers, discussed by a certain clique in the self same government) which were to be presented to Sani Abacha" courtesy of high ranking officers of the provisional ruling council.
And should Abacha refuse to accede to the demands, he, Donaldson Oladipo Diya, was not against Sani Abacha's forcible removal from office.
And, I thought these were de facto description of a coup de tat. But then, what do I know?
Knowing no more than I gleamed from Diya's testimony, and even when I am willfully partial to him, I still come off with the picture of a very disgruntled number two who was willing to go for broke. It is also very telling that Donald Oladipo Diya's counsel is a man from his own ethnic division of the Yoruba nation.
Hamza Al-Mustapha, a mere Major in the Nigerian Army, second in terror to Abacha, raised interesting, self serving but eye opening questions on "why things were".
Justice Okputa should indulge the nation in a "rare exercise of truth or dare" letting Diya and Mustapha go mano-mano in a free for all direct questioning of each other, without the interference of their lawyers. Each man's demeanor should grant us a modicum of truth.
I do not know Ishaya Bamaiyi or his person, and I thoroughly dislike him more than anybody in Inspector-General's custody for the state sanctioned murders committed in your name and Nigeria's national security.
Bamaiyi the scorpion, laid bare in crafted details, not hear say but direct testament, Diya's ambitions, collusions, deceptions, and why Donaldson Oladipo Diya should be ashamed of himself as a man . He said: Diya it was, who roped in his own kinsmen in his blind ambition to be numero uno. It was the same Ishaya Bamaiyi who volunteered the not so covert involvement of Tajudeen Olanrewaju and AbdulKarim Adisa in the alleged coup of 1997.
The Colonel Diya who was the military governor of Ogun State is not too far fetched from the ambitious Diya described in the testimony of Ishaya Bamaiyi, a fellow scorpion.
Victor Malu, Nigerian Army's current honcho, who sat in judgement of the alleged coupists shocked the nation sensible.
He strongly ascertained that Donaldson Oladipo Diya was not only implicated in the coup, he recruited men for the assignment and financed it. Further, Donaldson Oladipo Diya is dismissed from the Army, and on his conviction for the coup plot is not entitled to the rights of address, the uniform or privileges of a Lieutenant General of the Nigerian Army Corps.
Tajudeen Olanrewaju, not half as ambitious as Diya, preferring to be cloaked in respectability of mystery, has kept his mouth shut, and made no pretense of innocence.
AbdulKarim Adisa, the third leg of the tripartite Yoruba generals, bared his soul, teased and treated the nation to soldierly candor, maintaining
- That there indeed was a coup.
- That he knelt before and begged forgiveness of Al-Mustapha, as seen on the coup video presented in evidence, to save his hide. (Donaldson Oladipo Diya insists a similar video of him prostrating before Abacha was "doctored")
- That he wished everybody and anybody who has been a part of Nigeria's trauma ought to do the manly thing - which, in his opinion, is an open faced apology to the citizenry - if there indeed is to be forgiveness
- That the Lagos sitting of the panel has or is becoming a circus
- That few have shown magnanimity in victory.
Victor Malu mentioned a Major Fadipe, chief security officer to Donaldson Oladipo Diya, whom he characterized a good officer of the Nigerian Army Corps, misguided by his superiors and suckered into the coup plot.
General Malu further certified that he would re-absorb Major Fadipe, if he were so ordered.
General Victor Malu,
if that be the case and you believe it, you are the chief of army staff. The alleged coup is a strictly army thing. You sir, need no direction from no one, to recall Major Fadipe back into arms. Not a minute earlier than Major pass the smell test that his re-absorption into military service is not some sort of payola for spilling "the juice" his former boss and others.
General Malu,
is there anything to the rumors floating around on your ECOMOG command? We hope your actions are not designed to pre-empt United Nations pending investigation of your tenure.
General Malu,
I trust you will give optimum billing in thoroughly investigating innuendoes, even if that is what they ultimately turn out to be.
Guides
