A former chief of army staff, Ishaya Bamaiyi has said former President Olusegun Obasanjo refused to grant presidential pardon for Generals Oladipo Diya, Tajudeen Olanrewaju and AbdulKarim Adisa
He further said he used his tenure as president to cover up his alleged role in the 1995 coup.
Obasanjo was president between 1999 and 2007.
He was among those arrested and detained by the regime of Abacha, but as luck would have it, the military dictator died and Obasanjo was not only set free but assisted in taking the highest office in the land.
Obasanjo denied his involvement in any coup, but Bamaiyi alleged that the coup to overthrow Abacha’s regime was plotted by Obasanjo, Lawal Gwadabe, former military administrator of Niger state, Bello Fadile, a retired colonel, among others.
In his book ‘Vindication of a General’, Bamaiyi said the coup was real and the recordings of Gwadabe and Fadile could not be denied.
He explained that Nigerians would have known the truth about Obasanjo’s involvement in the coup if the request made by the lawyer to Hamza Al-Mustapha, chief security officer to Abacha, to play a tape, was granted.
The former chief of army staff said the panel “for whatever reason” refused Al-Mustapha’s request which in turn denied Nigerians the truth.
“General Obasanjo used his position as president to cover up his involvement in the 1995 coup,” Bamaiyi wrote.
“I believe that the main players will one day come out to tell Nigerians the truth, and the tape recordings of these statements will one day be played for Nigerians to draw their own conclusions.
“People used the term phantom coup because it was the Abacha period and Abacha is the only military head of state to spare coup plotters who were arrested, tried and convicted.
“If it had occurred during the reign of another military head of state, no one would have talked of a phantom coup.
“Nigerians should try to find out why General Obasanjo, as president, could pardon officers convicted with him for their roles in the 1995 coup and refused to pardon Generals Diya, Olanrewaju and Adisa.
“I dare say his conscience worried him and that he is aware the officers could expose him if he did not do anything about their cases.”