In the long struggles against military misrule and for democracy, we lost far more Nigerians under the Babangida dictatorship than under the Abacha regime. However, the fight against Abacha and his bandits was far more tasking. In the case of the former, hundreds were murdered but only a handful of Nigerians were detained at any given time.
There were also the periodic mass executions of soldiers, such as the ten who faced the firing squad on March 5, 1986 over the Vatsa coup and the 69 executed in 1990 over the Orkar coup.
In contrast, the Abacha regime assassinated select persons like Mrs. Kudirat Abiola in the streets or in their homes, bombed buses-especially those conveying soldiers-and detained or jailed many people. On average annually, between 1995 and 1998, we in the pro-democracy movement adopted a minimum of 100 political prisoners. These included retired Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Shehu Yar’Adua, who was eventually murdered in Abakaliki Prison on December 8, 1997.
We also adopted politicians like Abubakar Rimi, Olu Falae, Sule Lamido, Olabiyi Durojaiye, Bola Ige and Lam Adesina. Equally adopted were soldiers like Colonels Lawan Gwadabe and R.S.B. Bello-Fadile. We were quite interested in the latter not just because it was around him the Abacha terrorists built the phantom coup, but also because many lives were tied to him. These included Commodore L.M.O. Fabiyi, who was jailed for trying to defend Fadile diligently, and Ms. Rebecca Ikpe, Fadile’s sister-in-law. She was jailed and sent to solitary confinement in July 1995 for allegedly leaking his defence statement.
There were also the conscientious labour leaders like Frank Kokori, Milton Dabibi and Wariebi Kojo Agamene, who were detained without trial. Their offence was organizing a strike in furtherance of the demand that the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola should be de-annulled. We also internationalized the campaigns of men like Turner Ogboru and Professor Jide Osuntokun.
There were equally the cases of pro-democracy leaders like Olisa Agbakoba, Ogaga Ifowodo, Arthur Nwankwo, Udenta O. Udenta, Segun Mayegun, Bamidele Aturu, Dr Frederick Fasehun and our leader, Dr Beko Ransom-Kuti, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
In that category also was Ebun Olu Adegboruwa, now a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The case of this former student leader was unique in the sense that he was detained in the military intelligence cells along with his aged father, Chief Olu Adegboruwa.
There were the special cases of the journalists: Ms. Chris Anyanwu of TSM, Ben Charles Obi, ‘Classique’ George Mbah of Tell and Kunle Ajibade of The News, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by the military tribunal for allegedly being “accessories after the fact of treason.” The sentences were later reduced to fifteen years.
There were also many journalists we adopted. These included Soji Omotunde and Onome Osifo-Whiskey of Tell, who were captured on the streets of Lagos along with their families on their way to church. Detainees from The News made a long list. They included Femi Ojudu, later a senator, Tokunbo Fakeye, Rafiu Salau and Jenkins Alumona.
The challenges the Abacha regime posed to us included the fact that we had to continue the very dangerous struggle to oust it and return the country to a democratic path; keep the cases of the detainees on the front burner; and ensure the well-being of the prisoners and their families. This was more so in the cases of prisoners who did not have institutional support or whose families did not have strong financial resources.
We also had to update records of those detained, as some were not known to the public or even their families. There was the case of Moshood Fayemiwo, publisher of the Razor, who had fled the country. One day, some activists who were detained at the Department of Military Intelligence (DMI) in Apapa joined other detainees for prayers in the compound only to hear a voice from somewhere joining them. They enquired, and the voice identified himself as Fayemiwo.
We received the information and made it public that a man who was supposed to be in exile was actually in a DMI dungeon. This kind of announcement was necessary so he would not be eliminated without trace. It turned out that the military terrorists had actually abducted him in Cotonou, Benin Republic, and driven him through the border into Lagos, probably in the boot of a car.
The case of Bagauda Kaltho, a journalist with The News, was similar; he was secretly abducted and killed. Until today, we don’t know where he is buried.
There was the case of Sergeant Patrick Usipeko, who died or was killed at the Uyo Prisons without his demise being made public. The exact date of his passing and the circumstances were unknown. But it was before Yar’Adua was killed.
The murder of the latter really got us worried, especially when the vice-president of our coalition, the Campaign for Democracy (CD), Shehu Sani, later a senator, was then admitted at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH), which did not have the facilities to give him the required treatment.
So, we spent a lot of time keeping track of detainees like Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki, the deposed Sultan of Sokoto. Despite his accepting the deposition and pleading as a then 74-year-old man to be allowed to retire home, he was not even allowed access to his family. To make matters worse, his place of detention was secret, having been last seen in a detention facility in Zing, Taraba State.
Ben Charles Obi was held in Agodi Prisons, Ibadan, but for a long time was not allowed any visitor, not even his mother, Madam Juliet Obi. He also had no institutional support as his magazine had shut down. To get across to him, we had to infiltrate the prison with one of us on a Sunday, disguising ourselves as a preacher visiting prisoners.
There was the quite troubling case of UK-based media producer and manager Gbolahan ‘Lemi’ Olalemi, who was abducted from the home of his host in Lagos by military intelligence. His family, colleagues and most of his friends were in England, so he was virtually alone. While his captors considered him dangerous, they could not pin anything concrete on him.
After a long spell of detention in the DMI dungeons, he was one day told he would be released on bail only if he could get a surety who would produce him for a daily visit to the intelligence headquarters. I got a message from Lemi and stood surety. We did not know what information could be unearthed about him and reached the conclusion he had to flee the country. He jumped over the border and resurfaced in London.
