by Azeez Adeniyi

A former military officer, Col. Jibrin Isa, who was one of those convicted in the 1995 coup has said the book written by former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi was full of nonsense.

Bamaiyi in his book had insisted that the 1995 coup against the government of Gen. Sani Abacha actually happened.

In an interview with Punch, Isa explained his role in the alleged botched coup d’etat.

Isa accused Bamaiyi and some other corrupt senior officers of attempting to get rid of sincere officers in the army.

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He said, “I left Lagos – Ikeja cantonment – in 1994. I was posted to Badagry and I moved my battalion there. I was posted out again same year to Jaji. Sometime in October of the same year, I reported in Jaji to take up my appointment. I was in charge of training in the Infantry Centre School, now College School of Infantry. I was more or less, the officer in charge of coordinating the training of officers. So, when we went on December break that year, I travelled to Ibadan in Oyo State. 

“I went there to visit Patrick Aziza (now late). He was my commander and close friend. From there, I went to visit another colleague in Ondo, the then military governor, Usman. At the end of the visits I returned to Jaji in February. In the midnight of the day that I celebrated my 41st birthday, I was woken up by some soldiers who had surrounded my house.

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“I was told that the General Officer Commanding 1 Mechanized Division, Brig. Ahmed Abdullahi, wanted to see me. I told them I had no business with Abdullahi. I was told he must see me in his guest house. I was in my apartment in Jaji, Nigeria Defence Academy quarters.

“So, I came out of the house and told my wife that Brig. Abdullahi wanted to see me. That was how I was taken away. I was driven to a guest house. ‘Where is the GOC now who wanted to see me in this guest house?’ I asked. He was not there; that was about 2am. Then, the soldiers said, ‘Oga, you are under arrest.’ I said, ‘For what?’ That was it.

“The following day they took me to another guest house where I was detained for more than a month and nobody told me what my offence was or anything. Eventually, in April we were flown to Lagos. I cannot forget the day I was arrested; it was February 21, 1995. It was my birthday.

“I was detained along with other military officers in the Inter Centre in Ikoyi and we were abandoned there. In detention cell there, I found myself with one Lt. Col. Oyewole. He was one year my junior in the academy.

“There were other people like (Col.) Olu Craig (now late); (Col. Lawan) Gwadabe; Col. Ndubueze, Oloruntoba and others. I think (Col. Gabriel) Ajayi was there too or he was brought in later. It was an interrogation centre where people were brought out one after the other for interrogation and torture.”

On Bamaiyi’s new book, Isa said the former Chief of Staff had the opportunity to defend his actions before the Oputa panel but refused to.

He added that Bamaiyi must have planned the coup since he has been insisting there was one.

He said, “Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi (retd.) has found himself in a privileged position. Concerning the so-called 1995 coup, the Oputa Panel has laid the matter to rest. There was an opportunity for him to attend the panel and defend himself and all the actions he took during the Gen. Sani Abacha junta.

“Everybody had the opportunity to defend his or her own case. He didn’t show up. His book is like an afterthought. His effort in the book is to justify his actions as the then chief of army staff and ridicule the report of the Oputa panel.

“Everybody was called to attend the panel and those of us who could not attend, made submissions. He could have as well done that. By now coming out, after spending so many years in prison himself to claim that the 1995 coup actually existed, it probably happened in his imagination.

“The 1995 phantom coup was a frame-up designed to get rid of some people out of the service. I strongly believe that he had a hand in the so-called coup because everybody is saying there was never a coup in 1995 but he is saying it happened. Why is it that he is the only one saying the coup occurred?”