OPPRESSION WATCH 28: DEATHS OF REWANE, KUDIRAT, YAR'ADUA, OTHERS
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NIGERIAN DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT (NDM)
NDM OPPRESSION WATCH 28
DEATHS OF REWANE, KUDIRAT, YAR'ADUA, OTHERS
December 15, 1998
Oppression Watch 27 was published September 23, 1998; Its Supplement
September 24
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NDM Statement on Recent Revelations
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During the five-year reign of terror, the late and unlamented General Sani
Abacha and his securo-goons unleashed murder, mayhem and malaise on our
dear country Nigeria. These events were meticulously detailed in many of
our Oppression Watch issues. In a wicked twist to the situation,
virtually all the killings and bombings were attributed to pro-democracy
members and other imaginary and so-called "unpatriotic" opponents who were
described as hell-bent on destabilizing the country.
Now that Abacha is dead and a new dictator is in town, some of Abacha's
security men are singing to their detainers about how they in fact carried
out the murders from a hit list, and manufactured bombings and
assassination attempts in order to keep the chaos in the country going, in
order not only to keep the opponents at bay but also to provide reasons
for more funds to be disbursed for security purposes. Such funds were
then pocketed by the likes of securo-goons Gwarzo and Mustapha.
Several of these latest revelatory accounts, including those surrounding
the deaths of NADECO chieftain Chief Alfred Rewane, Mrs. Kudirat Abiola
(Chief MKO Abiola's wife), Rear Admiral Omotehinwa, and even General Musa
Shehu Yar'Adua are detailed in news reports below. The setting up of
various alleged coup plotters are also outlined. One would be interested
in finding out whether, as once speculated, Ibrahim Abacha himself (who
died in an unexplained plane crash in 1995) was a victim of his own
father's murderous designs.
The Nigerian Democratic Movement puts the Abubakar regime on notice that
it will be watching very carefully how these culprits are handled in these
examples of high evil perpetrated in our country. While the
over-cautiousness with which General Abdusalami Abubakar has so far
treated the cases of the billions of naira of embezzled during the
Abacha period leaves much to be desired, allowing known murderous elements
and their collaborators to walk freely in the land, particularly during
this highly volatile political season, will be another matter entirely.
We do not believe that it is only Mustapha, Yakassai, Omenka and others
mentioned here who were involved in the nefarious activities. To leave
some others out to terrorize the next civilian administration will be the
ultimate disservice to the Nigerian people. No stone must be left
unturned to punish severely anybody involved in the heinous crimes
reported. They must be removed from the society of decent human beings.
Finally, justice should no longer be delayed one day further in releasing
those such as General Diya, Gwadabe, Bello-Fadile, Akinyemi and others who
are nothing more than the victims of a madly ambitious man called Sani
Abacha. If General Obasanjo, Dr. Beko Kuti, Mrs. Chris Anyanwu and
others have been freed on account of the 1995 trumped-up coup, there
is no further reason why these other individuals should remain in
prison.
They must be released today.
Released by the Executive Council of NDM
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Nigerian News Du Jour - Friday 11 December 1998
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'MUSTAPHA KILLED KUDIRAT & REWANE'
A medical doctor in charge of General Sani Abacha's dreaded Strike Force
who is serving a 14 year jail term in connection with last December's
alleged coup plot, Lt Col. Yakassai has accused several military officers
of assassinating opponents of the late Abacha. In a note smuggled out of
prison, Yakassai said Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Abacha killed Kudirat
Abiola and Chief Alfred Rewane. ''Mustapha was the one who organised the
killing of Rewane and Kudirat. For Kudirat, the officers used are one
Lawal, OC Mopol, Zamaila of the Brigade of Guards, Roger of the Strike
Force and Col Frank Omenka of the DMI'' Yakasai said. ''The truth is that
Abacha really wanted about six people murdered. The six are Generals
Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Col. Lawane Gwadabe, Col Bello
Fadile and Major Akinyemi. It was God that saved them''. Yakassai denied
injecting Yar'Adua with any poisonous substance that led his death.
''Yar'Adua died due to deliberate neglect by the military. General Sani
Abacha, Alhaji Ismaila Gwarzo and Major Mustapha wanted Yar'Adua buried in
Abakaliki prisons as a common criminal''. On the bomb meant to kill Lt
General Oladipo Diya about a year ago, Yakassai said Mustapha employed the
services of two men both named Zamaila. One was killed by the bomb after
it exploded prematurely whilst the other was murdered in hospital by
Mustapha's men after he survived the incident with injuries.
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Nigerian News Du Jour - Monday 14 December 1998
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WHY KUDIRAT, REWANE AND OMOTEHINWA WERE MURDERED
Startling revelations on why Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, Chief Alfred Rewane
and Rear Admiral Olu Omotehinwa were assassinated have been made by Major
Hamza El Mustapha. According to the current edition of Tell Magazine,
Mustapha confessed to his interrogators that the dreaded trio of Sabo
Mohammed, Ismaila Gwarzo and Frank Omenka were party to the crime. He
disclosed that Alhaja Kudirat was killed for her June 12 posture and
allegations that she was acquainted with some of late Abacha's
spiritualists. "Alhaja Kudirat's murder was organised by Alhaji Ismaila
Gwarzo who got the DMI involved by arranging for Col Frank Omenka to
co-ordinate the operation" he added. In the case of Chief Rewane, he was
killed for funding Nadeco and his various calls for the restructuring of
Nigeria through his numerous newspaper advertorials. Mustapha revealed
that Rear Admiral Omotehinwa was killed by Abacha on Gwarzo's
recommendation simply "for being a close friend of exiled democracy
stalwart, General Alani Akinrinade". In a separate development, Chief of
General Staff, Rear Admiral Mike Ahigbe, gave the assurance that the
regime would not spare anyone, no matter how highly placed, if implicated
in the on-going fraud allegations perpetrated during the Abacha regime. He
was speaking last Friday at the Calabar Cultural Centre, Cross Rivers
State, during the closing ceremony of the Nigeria Airforce Annual
Conference.
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LAGOS, Dec 14 (AFP) - Nigeria's police boss has ordered a fresh
investigation into the killings of two pro-democracy activists during the
regime of late military ruler General Sani Abacha, press reports said
Monday. Police Inspector-General Ibrahim Coommassie said the investigation
was reopened following revelations by an Abacha crony, Lieutenant Colonel
Ibrahim Yakassai, the independent National Concord reported. Kudirat
Abiola, wife of the late businessman politician Moshood Abiola, and Alfred
Rewane, a critic of Abacha, were assassinated by unknown gunmen in 1994.
The police closed the case early this year for lack of evidence linking
anyone to the killings. Last week, Yakassai said in prison notes published
by the magazine The Source that the killings had been ordered by Abacha's
chief security officer Major Hamza Al-Mustapha. He also gave a graphic
description of the killings and the names of the killers. Coommassie said
the police were forced to reopen the case in view of Yakassai's
revelations, reported the National Concord, which is run by the Abiola
family. Nigeria witnessed much political repression under Abacha's 4-1/2
years of iron rule, during which many political opponents were jailed.
Abiola was jailed in 1994 after the military cancelled 1993 elections he
was presumed to have won. He died of a heart attack in detention on July 7
this year, just before he was due to have been released by Nigerian leader
General Abdulsalam Abubakar, along with other political prisoners.
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TODAY NEWSPAPER: DECEMBER 13-19, 1998
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Deaths of Rewane, Kudirat, Yar'adua: Police quiz Yakasai, others
The Police are questioning officers and men named by a jailed coup
conspirator in the assassination of two top Nigerian politicians.
They, at the weekend, moved fast in their attempts to unravel those behind
the killings of Pa Alfred Rewane in 1995 and Alhaja Kudirat Abiola in 1996
after revelations by a jailed coup conspirator, Lt. Col. Ibrahim Yakasai.
The Police sources said they had suspected Yakasai in the killings, but
that he was shielded, TODAY learnt.
Yakasai told the Source Magazine that Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, former
Chief Security Officer to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha,
masterminded and directed the killings of Rewane, a NADECO chieftain and
financier and Kudirat Abiola, wife of the then detained politician and
businessman, the late Alhaji Moshood K. O. Abiola, who had declared
himself President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1994. Abiola died
on July 9 this year in detention.
In the revelations in the Magazine, Yakasai identified one Lawal of the
Mobile Police (Mopol); Samaila of the Brigade of Guards; Roger of the
Strike Force and Colonel Frank of the directorate of Military Intelligence
as culprits.
Col. Frank is suspected to be Col. (rtd) Frank Omonka, now being detained.
The Strike Force is a combined service security unit allegedly used to
exterminate political opponents of the late Abacha and was headed by
Yakasai and directed by Mustapha.
It was generally referred to as the death squad of the late Nigerian
leader. Sources close to the Police told TODAY that their investigations
were earlier stalled because of their inability to question suspects who
then appeared to enjoy executive cover.
The Police had tied some pieces of evidence together but could go no
further because they met a brick wall as they proceeded.
Besides, perhaps concocted facts were presented to show that the killings
of Rewane was robbery, which led to the arrest and indictment of some
suspects who confessed to the act. But with Yakasai "singing" to the press
and exposing otherwise unknown facts, they were picking clues to get to
the roots of the two killings, Police sources told TODAY at the weekend.
Sources close to the Police said they would also probe further allegations
made by Yakasai on the coup trials of 1995 and 1997 in which notable
Nigerians were convicted. Former Nigerian head of state, General Olusegun
Obasanjo, now a presidential aspirant in the People's Democratic Party
(PDP) and his deputy, the late Major General (rtd) Shehu Musa Yar'adua,
were among officers jailed for he 1995 coup plot, and former Chief of
General Staff, Lt. General Donaldson Oladipo Diya and two other army
generals were among those sentenced to death for the 1997 coup plot.
The new military administration of General Abdulsalami Abubakar freed
Obasanjo but Yar'adua died in prison at Abakaliki in suspicious
circumstances. Diya and others' death sentences were commuted to prison
terms.
But the Police are not leaving anything to chance to see that justice is
done in the two past coup trials. Yakasai did not elaborate on the 1995
trial but he said Yar'adua was innocent.
The jailed colonel also told the magazine that attempts were made by
Abacha to link the present head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar,
and his deputy, Rear Admiral Michael O. Akhigbe, to last year's coup to
eliminate them from the government. Abubakar was then Chief of Defence
Staff and Akhigbe Chief of Naval Staff.
TODAY learnt that Yakasai has been intensively quizzed by detectives who
are also working hard to know the extent of his involvement in other acts
during Abacha's rule because he alleged bombings of targets.
Police said they would want to ascertain the allegation by Yakasai that
Mustapha ordered the bombing of an aircraft in which Diya was to travel to
Makurdi. It claimed the lives of two security operatives identified by the
Colonel as both bearing Samaila. They were sent by Mustapha to kill Diya,
according to Yakasai.
TODAY was told that the Police are worried that atrocities before seemed
to have enjoyed executive connivance, although they were yet to ascertain
the killings were ordered by Abacha.
Yakasai absolved himself of any responsibility in the deaths of Yar'adua
and Abiola. He alleged delays by the then Head of State in allowing them
medical attention. But there have been allegations that Yakasai injected
Yar'adua with lethal substance to cause his death, an allegation Police
sources told TODAY they would not sweep under the carpet.
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