Ahamefula Ogbu and Ikenna Emewu
16 December 2000
Lagos — Former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi (rtd), on Thursday in Lagos, told the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Commission probing human rights violations in the country that the immediate past Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar planned to hand over to a retired General as President.
Bamaiyi, who said he was called by Abdulsalami and asked his view about the transition programme, stated that he had opposed the plan.
Bamaiyi traced his present travails to his view on the plan by Abdulasa-lami to hand over to a retired general.
He denied ever torturing President Olusegun Obas-anjo during his interrogation in connection with the 1995 coup plot.
He told the Commission that he suggested that there should be a clean break from the military to save the polity from further trouble. He said his position was interpreted to mean that he was opposed to the candidature of Obasanjo who was the only retired general in the race then.
He said the same question was posed to him by the Defence Minister, General Theophilus Dan-juma, who went further to accuse him of not supporting Obasanjo's candidature.
"Abdulsalami Abubakar called me and told me that he wanted me to find out who should be the Head of State. I told him that he is the Head of State and can decide. He said they were thinking of a retired General to take over.
"I told him that we needed a clean break from the past and not to use a retired general. That was why they said I was not in support of an Obasanjo candidature. General Danjuma told me that they learnt I was not in support of Obasanjo. Infact, I don't know if it is not part of my problem now; if it is not why I am being incarcerated", he said.
Responding to a question by his counsel, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau if Chief M. K. O. Abiola was alive when the consideration of another Head of State was being contemplated, he said yes.
To buttress his claim that he was committed to the return of democracy, he referred to a document called "military Initiative" which he a commissioned a Directorate of military Intelligence personnel to put together on how the military can leave power on a permanent basis. He said his initiative did not go down well with some officers. He said since late Head of State, General Sani Abacha did not tell him of his intention to perpetuate himself in office, he submitted a copy of the document to him but received no reply. Instead, he said he was branded and agent of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and accused of holding meetings with an American diplomat.
He denied knowledge of writing the alleged coup speech found with Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya in 1997. He said he never drafted any such document and that the only copy he ever saw was a computer print-out.
He used the opportunity to clarify the state of Abdusalami who was alleged to have been convicted for embezzling army pay.
He said in the military, once any offence of reprimand which usually attracts two years jail term is removed from the record of the affected person, if he does not commit another offence within three month, the person can no longer be called a convict.
For that, he said the document on the conviction will not be in the file of the former military boss as it would have been removed. Answering a question from Oputa, Bamaiyi said that it would be wrong to still refer to Abdulsalami as an ex-convict having been pardoned.
On his involvement in the negotiation for Abiola's bail, he said he was contacted by "one Ibo chap" who was his friend and also close to Bafyau on modalities to grant Abiola bail.
Offering explanations on why Abacha was avoiding public functions, he said it was because he was aware of plans by Diya to kill him.
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