Steve Nwosu
15 December 2000
Lagos — "If I had not done what I have done, I would have gone. So I have no shame. I have no apology for what I have done because I tried to save my life at that particular time".
Those were the words of former Minister of Works and Housing, Major General Abdulkarim Adisa (rtd), who Wednesday admitted to having begged Major Hamza Al- Mustapha, Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Gen. Sani Abacha, and knelt before him, as captured in the now controversial video clip of the events of the alleged coup of December 1997.
Adisa, who was being re-examined by his counsel, Chief Awomolo (SAN) at Wednesday's session of the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa commission on human rights violations confirmed that both the voice and picture in the video were his and that all the conversation did take place. He said whether or not he was guilty was immaterial and that he had to beg to save his life.
On his state of mind when he was saying the things he said in the video and if he thought Mustapha had the power to influence Abacha to forgive him, Adisa said he was called up well after midnight, and that he might not have been as alert as he was supposed to be, even though he knew he was being filmed. "I was the captive of Major Mustapha and I know Mustapha was not doing it on his own. It was in co-operation with other people", he said.
"He was the security officer at that time and we are talking about security. I don't know the English word to use; you had to fight to live again or something like that. So, at least, I am not dead. I am still useful to some people. Whereas if I had not done what I did, I would have gone. So I have no shame. I have no apology for what I have done because I tried to save my life at that particular time", he added.
Adisa, who was convicted in the said coup plot however said that it was not the normal practice in the army to film interrogation sessions, noting that "the people who have done it know why they did it".
Asked earlier by counsel to Major General Patrick Aziza, Princess Monica Akiri if he felt then that Al-Mustapha could help him, Adisa said it was possible in the army since, in times like that, a colonel could, acting on delegated authority, arrest and detain a General. "At that particular time it is security. Anything goes", Adisa said.
He restated that he did not tell Abacha of the four-point demand because the head of state had not given him satisfactory answers to the question he had also asked. "I was not satisfied with the inquiries I tried to find out from him. So I believe that I should put my nation before individual", he said.
Asked if this could mean that he wanted the four-point demand to succeed, Adisa said: "You are quite correct in that line because I believe that any body ... the country was going astray, we had no reputation again, we had so many things coming ... General Abacha, as I have said, I can never deny what he has done (for me). But I found out later that the way and manner Nigeria was going, we might end up doing nothing and I can not compromise the interest of the nation with an individual." He said he had to put national interest above any individual's interest. He said this, however, had nothing to do with any intention not to betray Diya, who had told him about the four-point demand.
In his re-examination, however, Diya maintained that there were a lot of inconsistencies in the video which made it suspicious.
He maintained that from the time of his detention through interrogation, up until the time he had audience with Abacha and to his eventual trial, he wore only one shirt and trouser. However, a part of the video showed him weeping before Abacha wearing a French suit.
Admitting that he had had reason to weep before Abacha, Diya said one of those instances was not when he met the General in the cause of his arrest and interrogation on the 1997 controversial coup.
He said that one instance on which he cried before Abacha was when the Abachas' eldest son, Ibrahim, died in a plane crash alongside 14 others in 1996.
Diya however said he could not recall if he had worn a French suit to go and commiserate with Abacha then.
His counsel, Chief Kehinde Sofola (SAN) submitted a portion of the book; New Scientist titled "How to Lie With Pictures" as an exhibit. A portion of the exhibit which Diya read explained how it was possible to alter pictures in the instance of the coup video to suit an end much different from what was actually contained in the original, pointing out that the same method was used in the old Soviet Union as well as in Czechoslovakia
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