It's a good development IBB seems to have turned a new leaf. His comments clearly indicated a bright future for Nigeria.

[size=20pt]GOSH ALL THIS CRIMINALS WAT IS IBB STIL DOING ON THIS EARTH[/size]

[size=30pt]IBB[/size] [size=20pt]THE HEAD OF CORRUPTION THE ORIGINATOR OF CORRUPTION[/size]

[size=18pt]This extract from his coup speech clearly displays he overthrew Gen. Buhari to release corrupt politicians and officials from prison and to do IMF and world bank bidding for them and mortgage our future:
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[size=18pt]Parts of Text of General Ibrahim Babangida's Coup Speech (exposes the real reason he sought power)[/size]
againstbabangida.com .August 27 , 1985

Fellow Nigerians,
When in December 1983, the former military leadership, headed by Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, assumed the reins of government, its accession was heralded in the history of this country. With the nation at the mercy of political misdirection and on the brink of economic collapse, a new sense of hope was created in the minds of every Nigerian.

Firstly, the issue of political detainees or convicts of special military tribunals. , While this government recognises the bitterness created by the irresponsible excesses of the politicians, we consider it unfortunate that methods of such nature as to cause more bitterness were applied to deal with past misdeeds.
In line with this government's intention to uphold fundamental human rights, the issue of detainees will be looked into with despatch, And finally, those who have been in detention under this decree are hereby unconditionally released.

Due to the stalemate, which arose in negotiation with the International Monetary Fund,
A lot has been said and heard about our position with the International Monetary Fund. Although we formally applied to the fund in April 1983, no progress has as yet been made in the negotiation and a stalemate has existed for the last two years.
We shall break the deadlock that frustrated the negotiations with a view to evaluating more objectively both the negative and positive implications of reaching a mutual agreement with the Fund.
God bless Nigeria.

Well said. I love the way he respected OBJ and Clark. I still think that the present leaders are more corrupt than IBB.

A fool at 71 is a fool forever. He should hide himself in shame. Ole.

[size=28pt]Babangida, the evil architect of Nigeria's downfall[/size]

https://www.nairaland.com/979284/ibb-evil-architect-nigerias-downfall

Mobutu Seseseko tyrannically ran Congo aground for three [3] decades killing and maiming his countrymen and women with impunity, US did nothing to stop him because he was a CIA agent, servicing and protecting America’s strategic interests, reports say. From authoritative source Republic Report gathered that, “US government is “positioning Ibrahim B. Babangida to return to power by any means necessary” come 2011”.

According to impeccable source, “CIA was partly to blame for overthrowing Buhari/Idiagbon regime in 1985”. RR learned that Buhari/Idiagbon military regime was too patriotic about everything and anything Nigeria in the “eyes of Americans”. Sources told RR that Buhari/Idigbon regime, “refused and rejected anything foreign interventions, refused to compromise Nigerian national interest to any foreign interests in any form or shape”, not “even to the secret intelligence agencies like CIA, KGB or MASSAD”. RR gathered that “their administration rejected IMF and World Bank” contraptions called Loans, etc” because they believe taking foreign loans automatically mortgages the well-being of unborn children of Nigerian families.

Then enter Ibrahim B. Babangida “Evil Genius”; on his [IBB] watch, Nigeria quickly became an institutionalized 419 state, characterized with lawlessness and colossal greed. Corruption was openly celebrated, through lies and secrecy Nigeria was sneaked through the back door to become a member of Organization of Islamic Countries [OIC], yes, through the back door, IBB collected dubious loans from IMF and World Bank, with all her criminal conditionalities. We are not even talking about unaccounted $13. 4 billion Gulf-War oil wind-fall. Second in Command to IBB, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe [rtd] unceremoniously quit military career because SMC was never consulted, and, never authoritized OIC-Membership. State organized crimes became rampant, plane crash killed over 256 military officers of Southern extraction, in Jaji, and many other killings took place during his era, in fact, killing became societal ethics and norm.

RR learned that Dele Giwa and other respected journalists in the country and respected military officers were assassinated by IBB killing machineries, because they had damning information on IBB and cronies, and were readying to make these secretes public, including IBB networks of international cocaine trafficking, etc. Orji Kalu reports say was, “recruited by IBB into the CIA gang” but something happened down the line and things didn’t work-out for the duo as planned, A situation that ratcheted a chain reaction that brought Nigeria to unending mess she found her today.

READ ON for additional Report on IBB and CIA Connections—:

Former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida and officials of the United States of America (USA) met for almost two hours in Minna, the Niger State capital, on Wednesday.

The meeting was held behind closed doors with the Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Matters, Mr. Jonnie Carson, and the American Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms Robin Sanders, in attendance.
On arrival at the IBB residence, the former military president, who had been waiting for the visitors, ushered them into his office where the meeting was held.

Newsmen were not allowed to either speak with the envoys or the former military president before and after the meeting because the Assistant Secretary of State did not want the visit in the press. Journalists were walked out of the IBB mansion so that they would not be within listening distance or position to take pictures.

However, a top aide of General Babangida told the Nigerian Tribune that the visit was “a condolence and private visit.”

According to the aide, Mr. Carson is a personal friend of General Babangida and he visited the former first lady twice when she was in hospital in California.

The killing by a letter bomb of Dele Giwa, a magazine editor critical of Babangida’s administration at his Lagos home in 1986, remains a controversial incident to this day.

In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo established the Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission headed by Justice Chukwudifu Oputa to investigate human rights abuses during Nigeria’s decades of military rule.

However, Babangida repeatedly defied summons to appear before the panel to answer allegations of human rights abuses and questioned both the legality of the commission and its power to summon him.

The Oputa Panel Report would conclude that “On General Ibrahim Babangida, we are of the view that there is evidence to suggest that he and the two security chiefs, Brigadier General Halilu Akilu and Col. A. K. Togun are accountable for the death of Dele Giwa by letter bomb.

We recommend that this case be re-opened for further investigation in the public interest.
Babangida and the CIA

That corruption is the source of all our problems, from insecurity, to poverty, to our underdevelopment and everything else is not news anymore either in Nigeria or to foreigners. However I wish more journalists would put extreme pressure on the looting and stealing political “elites” to save our dear country. There are certainly many patriotic and honest Nigerians who mean well for our dear country. There are some very good journalists who could use words to convey strong messages that could educate the public of the true enemies of Nigeria.

My sincere belief is that it is easy to govern Nigeria, if three essential ingredients of nation-building were honestly and determinedly addressed – Patriotism, Corruption and Enforcement of the Written Laws of the Land. Lack of any of these reinforces the other and addressing any of them addresses the others automatically. The bane of Nigeria’s problems is the almost complete lack of patriotism, especially among the thieving “elites”, which in turn, provides the fertile grounds for corruption. When I was in Lagos in 2007, one look at the traffic situation informed me that 98% of the traffic jams in Lagos is caused by human factor. Essentially, the lack of enforcement of the laws guiding road use, again due to corruption! This is just one example.

The aim of this write-up is to notify Babangida and his cronies that there are patriotic Nigerians all over the world, who have knowledge of his secret activities against the interests of Nigeria, for his own personal selfish benefits. His cousin had described him to me, as a ruthless, vindictive, unforgiving megalomaniac and extremely corrupt. Since he literally determines what happens in Nigeria, it might be very dangerous to pose a frontal attack against him. He’s a very ruthless man and powerful. If he could order his childhood friend, Gen. Mamman Vatsa, to be killed without batting an eyelid, we’d be just small mosquitoes!

We all need to start shouting our lungs out through writings, so that these thieves would feel the pressure and get out of the way for a better Nigeria It’s just a shame. When I was growing up in Cameroun, every remote village had pipe borne water and all the major towns and cities had 24hours /daily, of electricity! Nigeria is probably the only country in Africa where citizens defecate openly, all times of the day, in major cities, without consequences! I feel sad thinking about all these.

I’m currently based in the U.S and a full blooded and patriotic Nigerian, though born and raised outside Nigeria. The first impression any first time visitor would have of Nigeria would be of a country where nobody takes the law seriously because the laws are there but never enforced due to corruption; of a chaotic, free for all country with a complete lack of patriotism from top to bottom.

How did we get to this sorry and seemingly irreversible state? Our biggest problem is the continued recycling of the architects of corruption and their cronies, the so called military and political “elites”, under various guises of minister this, minister that. Ghana was able to move forward because Rawlings realized that the only way to move Ghana on was to completely eliminate all the old thieves. This option may not be feasible in Nigeria’s case, but if we all join hands together, especially our journalists, and say “enough is enough” to these thieves, instead of celebrating them, we can achieve something significant. But first, we have to identify the architects of corruption and relentlessly go after them through our write-ups or other civil actions.

The sole architect of the extreme corruption as seen today in Nigeria and the sorry state of affairs is no other than the former dictator, IBRAHIM BADAMOSI BABANGIDA. One of his relatives was my roommate in the US during my under graduate education. I was able to glimpse the true nature of the beast from him. Here is the Babangida most Nigerians know nothing about. Babangida is the most destabilizing force in Nigeria today and the more Nigerians know about it the better.

Related: NewsRescue- What You’re Not Being Told About Liberia and Charles Taylor

Babangida was sent here (U.S) in 1983, for a military course, during the Reagan administration. He admired Ronald Reagan’s Machiavellian dribbles with the American public and became a disciple of Reagan’s trickle-down economics, popularly derided as “voodoo” economics, where the resources and wealth of a nation are distributed to a few cronies, with the hope that their business activities would create wealth that would trickle down to the common man! This is how Babangida single-handedly wiped out the Nigerian middle class, creating a few stealing billionaires and a mass of poverty, with nothing in-between.

Anyway, while in the U.S. it became obvious that Babangida was recruited by the CIA. Mobutu’s power and relevance to the U.S interests in Africa was waning and they needed another Mobutu in a strategic country. Babangida fitted Mobutu’s personality traits; very ambitious, unpatriotic, bold, greedy and cunning.

So Babangida fitted the profile of a strong-man, like Mobutu, the U.S was looking for. It was also this time, in 1983, that Buhari and Idiagbon overthrew Shehu Shagari, who was drifting and didn’t seem to get a handle on how to move Nigeria forward. Buhari/Idiagbon had always been true patriots, and came in to try to save Nigeria. Buhari’s government was very serious about putting Nigeria on a straight path. There was a serious effort to combat indiscipline, drugs and corruption that bedeviled Shagari’s government. Buhari refused to borrow any more money from the IMF and World Bank; refused to devalue the Naira, as demanded by the West. When the West tried to blackmail and sabotage the Nigerian economy at that time, he countered it with the counter-trade policies, which was actually a corruption fighting tool (it was used by Cuba to neutralize years of America’s economic blockade of that island nation).The West knew that Buhari/Idiagbon were hell bent on serving only Nigeria’s interests against any other interests and they weren’t going to have it.

It should be remember that it was also during this period that Reagan was fighting several covert or proxy wars around the world. During the Reagan’s administration, the CIA actually became the main instrument, albeit covertly, of America’s foreign policy. When Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua became the leader of that country, it did not go down well with America because of his Marxist leanings. The CIA created and funded a rebel army, the Contras, to overthrow him, in what became known as the Contra War. The U.S Congress was kept in the dark about this covert war for a while, but when it came to their knowledge, they cut off all funding for the illegal war. The CIA was determined to bring down Ortega’s government so they had to come up with other ways of funding the war and bypass the Congress. They turned to selling drugs, but they could not do this directly from the U.S soil, so they looked for a Third World country to use to import the hard drugs and later smuggle to the U.S. Nigeria became very attractive to them because of its corruption, large population and chaotic nature. They felt it was the only country they could pull off such with relative ease. But Buhari was the head of state and was sending drug dealers to the firing squad. They knew he would never let them use Nigeria as their base for drug operations to fund their covert war. Nigeria was still the most attractive to them for the venture. It became clear to them that Buhari/Idiagbon had to go.

So entered Babangida and the coup that overthrew Buhari, covertly planned, supported and carried out with the aid of the CIA.
Babangida and family

Babangida and family

As soon as Babangida overthrew Buhari, he proceeded to undo everything Buhari tried to achieve for a better Nigeria. He devalued the naira, accepted all the conditionalities of the IMF and World Bank. Nigeria became a free for all with zero accountability. If you remembered his speech after the coup, there were ramblings about democracy, free market, human rights, etc. In fact the wording of that speech could have been scripted by the American State Department. In 1986, the Time Magazine (either February or September edition) reported that at the height of America’s covert wars during the Reagan administration, the U.S had the very elite commando unit of their armed forces, the SEAL, dispatched to several different countries for covert activities. Guess what; this unit was in Nigeria in August 1985, during the week that Babangida overthrew Buhari. These Special Forces are highly trained in all kinds of warfare. No Nigerian ever asked why they were in Nigeria at that particular time. The thinking of the CIA was that a coup against a Northern Muslim Fulani by a middle belt military personnel would be resisted and therefore bloody. So the SEAL was dispatched to make sure Babangida succeeded. If the coup had been resisted, Buhari and Idiagbon would have been killed, no question about it

After the coup, the CIA cut a deal with Babangida, where Nigeria was used as a major drug transit and money laundering center for the proceeds of the CIA drug trade. This is how the CIA was funding their Contra war. The phony or rogue bank, BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International) was used to launder the proceeds of the drug business and take them out of the country. Babangida’s loots left the country through this bank. Remember that branches of this bank were everywhere in Lagos and the North. Two investigative journalists in the US later broke the news that the CIA was involved in drug smuggling to fund the Contra War. They didn’t mention the country that was used, but from all indications, it was Nigeria! However, Dele Giwa somehow stumbled on this information and was seriously investigating it and was about to break the news when he was killed. This is the main reason that Babangida had Dele Giwa killed.

Remember also that the former leader of Burkina Faso, Capt. Thomas Sankara, of blessed memory, was a close friend, albeit, revolutionary friend of Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, who was hated so much by the .U.S. After Sankara was killed, obviously with help from the West, the rest of Africa condemned the cowardly act except Babangida. As a matter of fact, he gave the leader of the coup that killed Sankara, Major Compaore Blaise, a red carpet welcome to Lagos, barely a week after the murder. Again when in 1986, Reagan unjustifiably bombed Libya and killed Gadaffi`s daughter, everybody in Africa condemned the unprovoked attack, except Babangida, who was blaming Gaddafi for the attack.

Toward the end of 1986, or 1987, (can’t remember the exact year), Babangida was given a “Strategic” award, by the Heritage Foundation, a US right wing front whose philosophy is total world domination, economically, politically and militarily. The few other people, who had received this award, include Henry Kissinger and the former NATO Commander, Alexander Haig, people who had gone out of their way and the risk of their lives to advance America’s interests.

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No Nigerian journalist or news organization asked or questioned the reason IBB was given that award. Nobody asked why there was an explosion of drug activities during IBB’s regime. The only investigative journalist we had, Dele Giwa, was killed, so we were and still are in the dark of what is actually going on in Nigeria. And to make things worse, most of our papers are owned by the looters or friends of the looters.

[size=18pt]Anyway, it was during IBB’s regime that most of our wealth was looted out of the country (about 80%). It was the dream of America to make IBB, President for Life, just like Mobutu.[/size]

Enter Orji Kalu, now former Governor of Abia State. I am not very sure whether it was IBB who introduced Kalu to the CIA or the other way round, but it was the dream of the US to make Babangida the President and Kalu his Vice. Kalu is still a sleeper operative of the CIA. Three weeks before the last presidential election in 2007, Kalu was at the CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia. The only way anybody could get into that building is if you have a top secret security clearance or an active asset of the CIA with high level security clearance. Remember that Kalu had always boasted about how close he was with the Bush family. The only link between the two is the CIA and the fact that Kalu was a valuable asset for them, having proved it by betraying Nigeria, one way or the other, for his own personal gain.

How did IBB move his loots to France and Switzerland? IBB is as devilishly clever as he is ruthless. Kalu became the go-between, between him and the CIA, to avoid being linked to the CIA. With the help of the CIA, Kalu created numerous phony front companies to launder IBB’s loots and payouts from the CIA deal, and move them out of the country through the rogue bank, BCCI. This is why when Ribadu arrested Kalu for corruption, the Bush regime was up in arms against it, and the current Attorney General, Michael Aondoaaka took over the EFCC, in a mild drama. I’ll come to this later.

Kalu has the same character traits as Babangida or even worse. The CIA found him very valuable to them because this guy could do literally anything for personal gains and aggrandizement. Remember, Kalu had always stated that he is who he is today because of IBB. In fact this is the only honest statement that ever came out of Kalu’s mouth.

IBB created the very problems we are all suffering today. He never ever wanted to give up power for what he was getting out of it. He is an extremely crafty guy and dangerously cunning.

America’s dream, or rather the CIA’s dream, was to make Babangida a long time dictator like Mubarak of Egypt, and Orji Kalu his vice president, and for Kalu to continue after Babangida. The election that Babangida held in 1993 and which Abiola won was never meant to be. Babangida never wanted to give up power. America didn’t want him to give up power either. So he wasted all our resources, just to pretend that he wanted to give up power. He annulled the election on the advice of the State Department of the US, who did not trust Abiola to cut deals with them whenever they needed one. When Abacha realized that Babangida had no intention of giving up power, he tricked Babangida and forced him to hand over to the Shonekan’s so-called Interim National Government. The US never forgave Abacha for that. Abacha’s demonization went full blast. The US had hopes that they could still find a way to bring Babangida to power. The easiest way would be to eliminate the two major contenders, Abacha and Abiola. This would leave us no other option but Babangida. Abacha and Abiola could have been killed with the assistance of the CIA. I studied chemistry, as an undergraduate, and I know that a very minute drop of concentrated potassium chloride could easily create a massive natural heart attack and death immediately. Potassium chloride (KCl) has a very narrow lethal dose, i.e. very narrow range of lethality. This is the weapon of choice for most intelligence covert operations, because it could never be traced by any toxicology tests. My strong suspicion leans toward the use of KCl to kill Abiola and Abacha, to make way for Babangida to return. Babangida has never told the truth about why he annulled that election. He could never tell the true reason. Nigeria was smart to let Abdulsalam to rule after Abacha’s death, instead of Babangida. Abacha was never a saint, but most of the demonization against him was orchestrated by America, in a way, to divert attention away from Babangida. Even the so called Abacha loot in Swiss banks could have been Babangida’s, just to use the insignificant amount to blackmail Abacha, and have Nigerians believe that all the looting was done by Abacha. You see, our biggest problem is believing everything the West tells us without questions, not minding that they have always employed the Machiavellian doctrines in their dealings with the rest of the world.

[size=21pt]The US actually succeeded in having every Nigerian talking about Abacha’s loot, while Babangida conveniently faded to the background, attending weddings, birthday parties, funerals, etc, everywhere! In 2007, all grounds were cleared for Babangida to sneak back, and with the advice of the Bush Administration, for him to appoint Kalu as his running mate, a position which Kalu declined.
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Most Nigerians, and most of the rest of the world except Western Europe and Israel, are extremely naive about America. As much as being utilitarian, Americans are natural existentialists, driven in all their actions, bad or good, only by self interests. The only thing consistent about Americans as individuals is their unpredictability. For example, an American can ceremoniously and sanctimoniously give you a million dollars today, and tomorrow that same American kills you unceremoniously over five dollars! It saddens me whenever I read about our government officials trooping here to “learn” about the American system. The American government structure is very organized and extremely well structured and managed by very patriotic citizens. But honestly, America does not want the same fine structure for any part of the world outside Western Europe and Israel. America’s prosperity and power are based partly on their ability to manipulate all the developing countries to remain dependent, so that they could easily be used.

America did not accomplish their goal to return IBB to power in 1993, but they encouraged him to contest in 2007. In fact, everything was on the ground for him to run again, but Kalu refused the Vice President-ship. I, personally, was very alarmed that Nigerians folded their arms and some misguided corrupt cronies were actually rooting for this evil man who killed the finest of young Nigerian army officers, and essentially the architect of the present rot we are in. I sent part of the information I’m giving you to Nuhu Ribadu, when he was Chairman of EFCC, and also to the Sun Newspaper (at the time, I did not know the paper was owned by Orji Kalu, Babangida’s partner in crime). I’m very sure Ribadu read it, and probably briefed Obasanjo about it. Those at the Sun Newspaper could have informed Kalu about it, and Babangida could have gotten wind of it. About a month after I sent the article, I learnt that Babangida withdrew his ambition with the phony excuse that he would not run against his “younger brother, Yar’Adua”. My honest belief then was that he realized that there were people with damaging information about him. And also, Obasanjo could also have discouraged him, having been briefed about this information by Ribadu. These are my speculations as to why Babangida suddenly withdrew from contesting. So Ribadu played a major part in Babangida not running in the 2007 election.

Babangida has a huge animosity against Ribadu, who was really responsible for derailing Babangida`s presidential ambition in 2007. He never forgave him. In one of his several wedding or funeral services talks, Babangida made it clear that even if he never ran for the Presidency again, he would be involved in determining whoever rules Nigeria. He was responsible for the selection of Yar’Adua as President, after twisting Obasanjo’s hand, who owed him for getting him out of jail and making him President in 1999. Most of PDP’s “BIG” men are all carry-overs from the Babangida’s regime. Remember when he said he was satisfied with the selection of Yar’Adua as President, calling him his younger brother? He actually forced his old cronies and “boys” in the PDP to select Yar’Adua. He knew that Yar’Adua has a lot of humility, defers to him and lacks self confidence. He knew he could easily manipulate Yar’Adua. Essentially, Babangida is actually the one still calling the shots, behind the scenes, in Yar ‘Adua’s government.

All Ribadu’s problems were orchestrated by Babangida. Most Nigerians thought it was Ibori, but though Ibori is one of his “boys”, Babangida is the only one in Nigeria powerful enough to go against Obasanjo’s friends. Babangida influenced the appointments of Okiro (IGP) and Aondoakaa (AGF) and Waziri (EFCC), all in an effort to kill the war on corruption, and stop all the noise about corruption. Have you noticed that in all his public utterances, Babangida had never said anything against corruption? He does not see corruption as corruption, because he believes in Reagan’s trickle down or voodoo economics, i.e. give the wealth of the nation to a few of his cronies in government or business, and they would create wealth for others. It is this same Reagan’s idea that is wreaking havoc in the American economy today!

Every day, Yar ‘Adua’s government looks more and more like Babangida’s regime, because he influenced Yar’Adua to recycle his old cronies into important positions. These are men who through the years have perfected the art and science of stealing and looting.

Babangida remains the most destabilizing and powerful force in Nigeria today. It’s almost as if he owns Nigeria. He remains untouchable because all the recycled kleptomaniacs called politicians, who are in leadership positions today, owe their wealth and power to Babangida Watch my words, all talk about Nigeria’s progress, remains just talk, until Babangida’s powers and influence are erased. Until we have bold, very patriotic, incorruptible, and independent individuals elected by the people, Nigeria would go nowhere!!!!.

The only leader that Nigerian people ever elected was Abiola. The others were either influenced by foreign powers in collusion with corrupt politicians and the military. Nigeria needs the likes of Nuhu Ribadus, Gani Fawhinmis, Tai Solarins, and yes, Mohammed Buharis and Babatunde Idiagbons.

I was born in Cameroun, and I am a true pan-Africanist. I am an extremely patriotic Nigerian with a lot of passion for Nigeria. Any foreigner whoever comes in contact with me ends up loving Nigeria and wanting to go there. It’s my little way of rebranding Nigeria, whatever that really means. I sincerely believe that Nigeria could potentially be the greatest wholly black nation on earth if we could put our acts together and stop corruption at all cost and by all means necessary. The West is very much aware of Nigeria’s potentials and they are doing everything to stop it, especially the US. This is why the American Press uses every opportunity to humiliate Nigeria, to make us lose our Natural self confidence and not compete with them toe-to-toe. There are more criminals in one American city, than all of Nigeria combined! The truth is that a powerful wholly black nation would shatter the methodical stereotype of the black race, as stupid, by their media over the years. A powerful black nation would also awaken their black population to aim higher, and regain their confidence after years of emasculation. This is something they’ll do everything to avoid. I honestly believe that most of our problems, especially the Niger Delta, could be traced back to LONDON AND WASHINGTON, through their multinational corporations, who corrupt and impose corrupt and inept leaders on us.


https://www.nairaland.com/979284/ibb-evil-architect-nigerias-downfall

Naija People, let us leave him and see what will be the end of IBB's life. very soon i know and i believed that NEMESIS will catch up with IBB.

By the grace of God. (Amen)

[size=18pt]IBB linked to Abacha' an Abiola's murder - revealed by Fayewimo ex-editor of Nigerian Newspaper Razor , who is now in exile in the US[/size]

He was interviewed by POINTBLANKNEWS


How did you come to know so much about the August 1985, Babangida coup d’etat?

I had left university of Lagos for one year like I said. I lived in a military barrack, the Ikeja cantonment. I lived there with an uncle and that was when I started working with the Concord. I actually had three people in Ikeja cantonment at that time. I do not want to mention their names because one of them is still in active military service. One is here now in the United States, came originally as a political assylee. The other one has retired. I would not like to mention their names. But I was living with them. The Babangida coup was planned around Ikeja cantonment. I have to tell you this General Muhammadu Buhari, the then Head of State is still alive, he knew it two weeks before the coupists struck. And for the first time, Nigerians should be able to know why Babangida staged the coup, because we have heard so many stories. There have been several guesses all over the place. Of course I am not a coup plotter, but we heard the real truth because we
lived in the barracks.

My senior colleague, Dr. Taiwo Ogunade of City University of New York has been able to also disclose some of these information. Basically, what I want to say is that Chief Abiola was the one who sponsored the Babangida coup in 1985. And the reason Babangida struck was because he had been marked down by Buhari and Idiagbon for drug running. For posterity reasons, all these things should be disclosed to Nigerians. Brigadier Aliyu Mohammed, you have heard of his name. He later became a Lieutenant–General. He was brought back by Babangida to become National Security Adviser, NSA to Obasanjo. This man and Babangida were actually involved in drug running when Babangida was chief of Army Staff to Buhari regime.

Babangida has been amply rewarded as one of the arrowheads of the coup that toppled Alhaji Shehu Shagari.

The other key players in that coup were Late Tunde Idiagbon, Mamman Vatsa and late Brigadier – General Ibrahim Bako. Buhari was brought in as the head of that government as a compromise leader after Bako had been killed in the coup at the presidential palace in Abuja while attempting to arrest Shagari. Idiagbon became Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters for ethnic balancing. Remember? He was a Yoruba from Kwara state. The coup plotters ran into serious problems. Major Jokolo, who became the Emir of Gwandu, was one of them. He threatened them that none of them would leave Dodan Barracks alive after the takeover. Idiagbon had made a broadcast to the nation. That was 31 st of December, 1983. Buhari was then the General Officer commanding in Jos, Plateau State. They were deliberating on who would step into Bako’s shoes. Jokolo insisted…

Point of observation, sir, General Babangida, in an interview with Point Blank News/people’s magazine, said that Brigadier General Bako was never in consideration for the exalted office of Head of State.

Then who were they considering for that position? As usual, the deceptive general said Buhari was the first choice Buhari was never part of the original plotters of the coup.

He said Buhari had always been the first choice. No question. Number two, you said there was an ethnic balancing, but that was not obvious. Buhari/Idiagbon was a moslem/moslem and North/North ticket. Ilorin was in the North.

Remember I was not in the military, I am a civilian. I did not take part in their coup. But you know Ilorin people. When things are robust they claim south. When things ­twist otherwise, they claim north. The name Tunde Idiagbon, is a Yoruba name, the man wasa moslem. They put him there to look like geo-political balancing. The point is that Buhari was not one of the ring leaders of that coup.

He came in as a compromise candidate. The composition of that government was changed because Bako died at the presidential palace. I was twenty three or twenty four at that time. It wasn’t as if I knew much.

The one I knew very well the coup that Babangida himself planned. The coup was neither motivated by altruistic motive nor by patriotic motive. It was a self survival coup d’etat. That is the point I want to stress. There are different ways coups take place in third world countries. It could be to reject oppression, change a bad direction for a country or to serve patriotic purpose on how a nation should be governed. None of these reasons motivated Babangida to organize his coup.

His career was on the line. He had his back to the wall, because of his activities as a former GOC and as the Chief of Army Staff under Buhari regime.

You should also know that Obasanjo knew and subscribed to the coup that toppled Buhari. Like Babangida, Aliyu Mohammed was also a drug baron that was well known to Buhari and Idiagbon. Aliyu Mohammed was slated for retirement as well. Babangida and Mohammed were both marked down for retirement and possible trial.

Ambassador Mohammed Rafindadi was in charge of the then National Security Organization, NSO, now known as State Security Service, SSS. He, Rafindadi was an uncle to Buhari. When they came into office, a lot of things were going on and they discovered Idiagbon insisted on death penalty for drug pushers. And most of the drug peddlers and international couriers were Babangida’s boys. As a matter of fact, Babangida’s clique introduced drug-running into Nigeria. When Buhari regime uncovered the elaborate entrenched Babangida drug-running network and the rumor of his wife, Maryam’s involvement as well, they penciled him down for retirement. We shall talk about the Gloria Okon connection later.

The Babangida’s removal announcement had been scheduled for October 1, 1985. Babangida knew and staged the coup to pre-empt the calamity of October. They had the coup plans. They wanted to strike in October, but with Babangida’s pending retirement, they quickly brought the date back to August.

After they had agreed, the boys, Abubakar Umar, Abdul Aminu, Lawan Gwadabe and Anthony Ukpo went to Otta to inform Obasanjo that they wanted to remove the Buhari/Idiagbon regime. Any military coup also needed Obasanjo’s clearance. There is no coup in Nigeria, either successful or abortive that Obasanjo does not know of. You know he had this phony organization called African Leadership Forum. It was all a ruse He used that organization for anything but leadership training. He came here to the Council of Foreign Relations to collect the initial money to set up that clandestine organization. Anyway, that was the body they used to plan anti-people policies at Ota including coup planning.

Nzeogu’s coup as well?

I am talking of anything that happened after he became Head of State in 1976. He was even in the know about the coup that killed General Muritala Mohammed.

You mean he knew about the Dimka’s plot?

Yes of course. That was why he left for Abeokuta that day. The CIA has documents in the United States here about this.

But he maintained the face of the avenger of his boss’s death to all of us. Are you accusing Obasanjo of hypocrisy?

Yes. He became the Head of State and checkmated the other plotters. He knew of the 1976 coup. That is why I said he always knows about every coup plot including that of Abacha.

Well maybe because he would have access to intelligence estimates as a former leader of the nation.

We shall talk more about that. So the boys went to him in Otta. They gave him a note to know if he had a candidate in office. He did not want any obvious association, but he gave them the name of his cousin, Onaolapo Soleye who was a lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Ibadan to become Buhari’s Minister of Finance. Buhari drifted and his economic policies were harsh. Obasanjo tried to advice him then, they snubbed him. He was annoyed and that was why he said he would never talk to a “deaf regime”. He had a pre-existing axe to grind with the Buhari regime.

So when the IBB boys came to tell him that they wanted to remove Buhari, he asked to know who they had as Buhari’s substitute. They said Babangida. He said o.k.

He said that? Would he not have had intelligence that IBB was a drug baron?

He said o.k. I don’t know what he knew or what he did not know. He gave them his blessings. They told him they had a problem. What was the problem, he asked? They said with Buhari, it would be very easy to topple the government, but with Idiagbon, they did not want to kill anybody. How would they get Idiagbon out of the way? They want Obasanjo to call Idiagbon to lure him to go out of the country to go to Saudi Arabia on Umrah, the lesser Hajj. Obasanjo invited Tunde Idiagbon. Tunde Idiagbon came to Obasanjo’s farm at Otta. It was the first time Idiagbon smiled to journalists. He was always frowning, but he laughed for the first time in Obasanjo’s farm. Obasanjo gave him the bogey advice that it was time for Nigeria to court the economic co-operation of the Saudis and the Middle East, so that the economy of the country could be revived. It was a dummy idea of the Babangida boys to get Tunde Idiagbon out of the way. And when Tunde Idiagbon was
going, they were also afraid of Vatsa, he was in charge of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. Vatsa was asked to go with him on Holy pilgrimage to Mecca. During the Sallah celebration, they took over power. The coup was staged on a Friday. It was at Ikeja cantonment.

The private jet that conveyed Babangida from Lagos to Minna where he went for the Sallah holiday was an Abiola personal aircraft. Abiola had travelled out of Nigeria a week before the coup which took place on 27 th of August, 1985. Abiola had walked into our newsroom at Concord to address all of us in the newsroom and that was where he told us “we should forget about this government”.

Most people did not know what was happening. I was working at Concord and was in the news room when he said it. He said that the government was gone. A week later, the coup was staged and Babangida became the Head of State.

The point I want to make was that the coup was that of a self- survival. It was not patriotically motivated. It had nothing to do with nationalistic agenda. It was selfish and that is why Babangida exhibited the kind of evil reign that we witnessed for eight years. That is the point I want to make. Buhari-Idiagbon came to rescue Nigeria from the destruction of Shehu Shagari. 22 months later, Babangida came not for any reason but for his own survival because he was about to be tried for drug-running.

It is not so obvious to the general public that IBB was a drug dealer. We heard of his wife and Gloria Okon, Dele Giwa’s connection. We do not have any fact of IBB’s direct involvement. How is it hidden from us?

No. It is not hidden. I don’t know why in Nigeria. The press is there, the newspapers are there. It is not hidden at all. All the top journalists are there and nobody is talking now because IBB is still alive. You will see them talking immediately the man is dead. He has interests in virtually all the newspapers. You know what I mean?

Let all these people talk. Segun Osoba, Farouk Mohammed, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Ajibola Ogunsola, Sam Pemu Amuka, Stanley Macebuh, Patrick Dele-Cole, Imeh Umanah, Alex Akinyele, Tony Momoh, Doyin Abiola, Felix Adenaike, Banji Kuroloja, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Mohammed, Soji Akinrinnade, Raymond Ekpu. Let all of these people open up. And they all know why Mr. Dele Giwa was killed.

Infact, the story you are talking about that Dele Giwa was killed over, these people, top journalists they have it in Nigeria. If I could have it then, I was the first person to go public with the story in September 1993 before my senior colleague; Dr. Taiwo Ogunade of CUNY now came out to corroborate it. I was the only person through Razor, who came out to stick my neck then.

Sir, that was the story?

It was Babangida who planned the death of Dele Giwa. It was Babangida that killed him. It is very obvious. Senator Florence Ita – Giwa, Dele Giwa’s former wife knew. The one they now call Mama Bakkassi was a girl friend to Aliyu Mohammed, the one I just told you was to be retired with IBB, although he later changed his name to Mohammed Gusau just to deceive Nigerians.

You sure he is the same person?

Oh sure. He is the same person because immediately Babangida became Head of State, Babangida brought him back. Gusau Mohammed was about to be gazetted by the Buhari regime. I just told you why they struck. Babangida left him with Abacha, and Gusau later became a Lt-General. He was the person whom Babangida brought back to become National Security Adviser to Obasanjo. That is why Obasanjo was governing but did not rule and Nigerians did not know for eight years. Every step that Obasanjo wanted to take Aliyu Mohammed Gusau was always there. I mean your national security adviser is your life. Don’t you know? That is why IBB foisted the guy on Obasanjo. There are a lot of things in Nigeria, that Nigerians cannot hear about now until when IBB is dead. That was why he spread his tentacles all over the newspapers. And those whose names I have mentioned are alive…

What is the deal that IBB made with those notable journalists?

Immediately Babangida came into power, he knew that any journalist who was about town had the story. The first thing he did was to make Aliyu Mohammed (Gusau) the Directorate of Military Intelligence man. He surreptitiously was Babangida’s National Security Adviser, NSA. They had to cover their past dirty stuff. The man called all the top journalists in Nigeria, all these names that I have just given you, they assembled at the DMI, there was no DMI before IBB took over. He set up the Directorate of Military Intelligence at Apapa where they took me to under Abacha (Lagos).

So he now called them and said gentlemen, we want to cultivate the friendship of the press. If there is any story that is incriminating, we want to be sharing ideas, let us know. You understand now? You know they have their press briefing, media chat. Exactly. I have told you that there are always two stories in Nigeria: the official story, which they want the people to hear and the unofficial underlying real story that they do not want you and I to know.

Are you saying, sir, that the media is guilty of mediocrity in all of this?

No. I have told you of the institutional problem of media operations and ownership. The guys who are stealing the money are the ones rich enough to set up newspapers in Nigeria. And who will pay the piper would dictate the tune. Look at all the newspapers in Nigeria. Tell me which one is not being bank-rolled by these bad guys. That was why when I set up the Razor, it became a phenomenon in Nigeria, besides being modest. If I had one of the Generals as my chairman, do you think I would be able to publish all those stories? This is the problem in Nigeria. Nigerian newspapers are owned by the same set of people who are causing the problems; they have control over all the newspapers. Tell me which paper, tell me in which paper does Babangida not have shares in Nigeria, by proxy?

Yes, it was not so obvious that the letter bomb came from IBB. Gani Fawehinmi and many other theorists said it did come from “C-In-C”, Halilu Akilu, Col. Togun are not talking.

Let me clear that one for you. Buhari wanted to make Dele Giwa Minister of Information. Buhari actually granted his maiden interview to Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu and Yakubu Mohammed for the Concord in February, 1984. In the interview, Buhari said “I would tamper with the press”. That was how Decree No. 4 was promulgated.

After the interview, Buhari made overtures to make Dele Giwa the Minister of Information. Buhari called M.K.O. Abiola and said “I want to make your editor the Minister of Information”, because Dele Giwa was editing Sunday Concord then. M.K.O. Abiola said Dele Giwa would not be interested. That was one of the reasons Dele Giwa left Concord. He was not consulted before Abiola determined his fate.

Was that one formidable?

Oh yes, it was. The movement added fillip and energy to our struggle back home, otherwise Abacha wanted to crush all of us. It was a coalition of disparaged ideological minds.

But the story was that Senator Tinubu, who later became governor of Lagos State, did make limitless funds available for the struggle. How true is that?

Yes. Bola Tinubu was an individual. You asked me for a movement. There were more other individuals too like Prof. Banjo who used their resources. But was there any movement? There was no movement. Tinubu made some financial contributions. Other people also did. He was close to Abiola. He accompanied Abiola to Abacha’s office where they discussed that Abacha should stay for six months. And when Abacha reneged, that was how Tinubu ran away from Nigeria.

Was that deal not like a dinner with the devil?

But Abacha told them. He gave them the impression that he would stabilize the place and bring up Abiola. It was a charade.

Was Abiola naïve or he was acting in the best interest of the country?

Not an issue of naiveté. Abiola was trusting. He was an unorganized and indisciplined person, because of money. I mean for someone to live that kind of life. Can you compare between Abiola and Awolowo for instance? Abiola wasn’t organized. He wasn’t a disciplined man. But he was very trusting. We are talking of politics and power.

Do you think he was ever transformed by the betrayals of June 12?

We never knew and we would never know if he had Survived his incarceration. Prison has a way of bringing one’s real character.

How about his tenacity?

Tenacity has nothing to do with discipline. One becomes disciplined while alive.

You had your reservations about his life and you still had your weight and skills behind him?

It was a systemic change. If Obama’s election was annulled because he was black, that would have been the end of America. It is not about personality. A lot of presidential candidates came and were banned before him, nobody fought for them because there was no general election.

When did you choose to abandon intellectual war for armed struggle?

You should understand that many people died because of Babangida’s wickedness. Do you know the kind of pains Babangida inflicted on Nigerians? It appears that the man would go scot free. It should not have happened in any civilized society. That was why I left Nigeria. The annulment of June 12, we may be pretending now that things are ok.

Is that not like taking an extreme position on a matter that appears settled?

We are talking about June 12 now. Your children, mine and their children’s children would talk about the gross injustice. We may be pretending now that let us move forward, things are o.k. Things would never be o.k. in Nigeria. I know that there are forces at work, but the point is that Abiola won on June 12. It would have been alright even if they removed him after a day, one month or ten years in office. But that a man would just wake because he was military general and peremptorily annul an election, because he was a Military General, when the results were everywhere.

At what point in the debacle did you decide to float Razor?

I never knew there was going to be an annulment. What was certain was that Babangida was not ready to go. Because the election was held on 12 th of June, 1993, by March Babangida was dissolving parastatals and constituting boards and memberships. I told my colleagues in Daily Times like Bunmi Aborishade and others that the man would not go anywhere. Six months to that election, the man should have started his farewell tour. Anyone with a sense of history would see it on the horizon that this man would not go anywhere. What was the point of changing officials if he had to go in three or four months? He even made Abiola the Chairman of Nigerian Export Import Bank NEXIM. And I said what is this man IBB, doing?

I never thought of June 12. Razor was a child of circumstances.

Your publication became completely engrossed in that agitation. Didn’t you go beyond normal reportorial routine? You almost became a politician. Why that choice?

Things were abnormal. The role of the media extends beyond gate-keeping or merely informing, educating or entertaining the people. What I saw and discovered was that in any military regime, the press do not only have to become adversarial, we also have to play advocacy role. And that was what happened at that time. There were no democratic institutions. The military pocketed the country. There was no voice of dissent. Newspapers should not have to be a gate keeper only, but to go beyond the normal role of the press in any civilized society. Be advocates. That was how I saw it. We had no access to guns. We could not stage a coup. The only weapon was to wield our pen and fight.

I think the Razor and other militant publications at that time played a militant role.

You actually did more than that. Your connection with Professor Segun Banjo…

Well, you see…

Why the option of arms?

I subscribed to that notion at that time that the way Abacha was going, the man wasn’t interested in dialogue and something needed to be done. Concerning the role of the press in informing, the soul of Nigeria was at stake. I just felt that the monopoly of the military to ammunitions should be broken. There were other colleagues who felt that we would all be crushed if we stayed inside Nigeria.

We had some U.S. based professionals who would form the Peoples Liberation Army of Nigeria, PLAN. The arrangement was afoot. It was said that they were ready to help Nigeria. They would support us to go inside the bush and fight Abacha.

First and foremost, it was not planned well.

Secondly, he wanted to turn it into an exclusive movement. And besides, there was no thorough home work. Choosing Benin Republic to me was the first faulty step. Cotonou was more or less the twenty-second State of Nigeria. I mean that it was reasonable to think of bringing arms and ammunition into Nigeria and say the people should train. But where were they going to train them? There was no political contact. No link whatsoever with those who were fighting inside Nigeria. It was more or less like a one – man show.

You don’t organize a movement like a one man show.

Were you able to point out these weaknesses to him?

We had an argument in Cotonou. I said, because left to me, he has not acknowledged that I had his life and that of his wife in my palm for almost forty-eight hours. The Nigerian government, through S. Adoli the Nigerian ambassador to Republic of Benin, was ready to offer me money to betray them. And I said no.

They should not have used Cotonou or anywhere near Nigeria. These were people who had been out of Africa for a long time. They should have done their home work before importing arms and ammunition. People should have been waiting on the ground for them. Uganda should have been a place of preference. Even I could not make the mistake of choosing a place like Ghana. Ghana, Niger, Chad, Cameroon are too close for comfort to train and want to fight in Nigeria.

The man should have chosen elsewhere. It looked like the man did not have enough money. I read an interview in The Nation in Nigeria, that the man is broke. If he can come to the U.S., there is money waiting for him. He should use this occasion to know that he could contact me through you guys.

You mean there is some money waiting for him here?

Yes. For Prof. Segun Banjo and his wife Ngozika

Do you think he spent up to $4m on the struggle?

I can’t affirm or deny.

I did not see the cache of arm. But at the same time, I would not deny it. I don’t know.

Did your recruitment involve voodoo initiations?

Not necessarily voodoo. When we got to Ghana, there was the suggestion. They were suggesting that kind of stuff, for the purpose of trust and all that. I laughed, because we were not talking of General Ukunda kind of warfare in Congo. I am a Christian. I don’t need to take any concoction or voodoo. I said I would not be involved in that kind of a thing. Many were ready to do the initiation. The struggle is my life and I don’t need to go through any nonsense to be able to prove that.

The Nation said you were arrested because you had assisted the man to plan an escape. What is your story?

I was not arrested. I was kidnapped. I had been invited to Alagbon. I made up my mind after an encounter with Zakari and later Nuhu Ribadu. It was my first time of meeting him. Zakari Biu used my arrest to get Fred Ajudua. They had the idea that Ajudua was the one who was sponsoring me. Ajudua contributed to my…. I want to say it openly today that no matter what anybody may say about 419, no matter your grouse with Ajudua, the man contributed so much to the struggle.

People did not know. There are 419 in America. I don’t want to go into that one. But that man, Zakari Biu raided our office and saw some documents showing correspondence with Ajudua. Ajudua was having a quarrel with Coomasie, the then Deputy Inspector General of Police, D I-G, and Aliyu Atta, the Inspector – General of Police was a friend to Ajudua.

The man never had any respect for Ibrahim Coomasie. Coomasie stepped up after Atta had retired. Then they began to spotlight my closeness to Ajudua. They saw some documents. Ajudua was on my board. Zakari used that connection to go to Ibrahim Coomasie and that was why they arrested Ajudua.

There was the rumor in Nigeria, that I gave up Ajudua. No. They saw my correspondence with Ajudua when they raided my office, that was why they went after him.

When I left Nigeria, it was with my family from Nigeria. When I got in touch with Benin Republic, it was too close to Nigeria. There was nothing we could do. The best thing was for us to stay in Ghana until we had a country that could give us reception. Then we could continue there. But because Nigerian Security guys had already infiltrated Benin Republic, Banjo’s life was in danger. I just put my life on the line and I said I was not going to betray him. What you should know was that I was so concerned with my family, that I wrote a letter to the Beninois government concerning the activities of Mrs. Naryse Fontus. She was the Chief Protection Officer of United Nations High Commission for Refugee (UNHCR). That woman was on the payroll of the Abacha government. We had it on authority that Abacha was sleeping with the woman whenever he was in Cotonou.

Going to UNHCR was like going back to ones death because the woman would virtually betray you. So we knew. She was the one who, however, paid. She gave me money to get Segun Banjo out of Benin Republic. I had photocopies of the money she gave me. So I wrote to the Beninois government on her activities.

I told my family that the letter should be released if anything happened to me. It was that letter that saved me from being killed.

There were lots of people who showed interest in the Nigerian problem at that time. I would not deny, I would not confirm. I would not know. Maybe yes. Maybe it was exaggerated. I don’t know. I don’t know if he spent close to $4m. But on the issue of voodoo and initiation, I told him we were not running Alice Lakwema the LORD’S Resistance Army of Uganda (laughs). You know what I mean. Not the rebel army of Congo. We are educated people. If the struggle is my life, I don’t need to be used. I don’t need to take any concoction. I do not compromise my Christian fundamentals. I said I would not be involved in that kind of a thing. Many people were ready to do the thing. Even some who did not believe in my struggle, just wanted to be initiated voodooist.

It was said you travelled to Ghana with the man (Banjo) and that the reason you were arrested by the DMI was because you enabled and smuggled him to escape.

I was first arrested by FIIB, Alagbon. Zakari Biu effected my arrest to get Fred Ajudua. Biu had that idea that Ajudua was the one who was bankrolling me. Remember Ajudua contributed. No matter your grouse concerning 419 with Ajudua, that man was one of the Nigerians who were committed to the struggle. There are 419 people in the American system as well. I don’t want to go into that now. Zakari Biu ordered a raid on our office. He saw some documents between Ajudua and I which was a strong link of Ajudua with me. Remember, Ajudua was not having a good relationship with Coomasie. Aliyu Atta was a friend to Ajudua. Ajudua had no respect for Coomasie.

It was after the retirement of Atta, that Coomasie went after Ajudua. And somehow, Ajudua was connected with me. Ajudua was a director of our board. Zakari used that to demonstrate to Coomasie that the document must be used to nail Ajudua and that was why they arrested him. I want to use this forum to clear the air of the wrong information in Nigeria that I gave up Ajudua. No. It was our correspondence that they saw when they raided my office that led to his arrest. I did not give him up.

How was Ajudua your boss?

I said he was on my board. He was a member of the board of directors of my company, Razor. I also knew he gave lots of money to several pro-democracy people and leaders. Unfortunately, they have not treated him well.

So what actually happened? How and why were you arrested?

I took my family out of Nigeria. Cotonou was the first stop point. But meeting the Banjos, I knew that Cotonou was not safe. Benin Republic was very close to Nigeria. There was not much we could do. It was better for us to stay in Ghana, maybe we could eventually get a country to give us reception, the struggle would continue from there. Nigerian Security guys had already infiltrated Cotonou and they wanted to take Banjo out (kill him). I put my life on the line that I was not going to betray them. But what you should know was that I was so concerned with the safety of my family that I wrote a letter to the Beninois authorities concerning the activities of UNHCR.

I had detailed the activities of the woman, and I gave a copy of the letter to my former wife. The UNHCR boss was the one who gave me the money with which I took Banjo to Ghana. I made photocopies of the currency notes. The letter I had given to my wife on the woman’s activities became the reason why I was not killed immediately I got to DMI.

That is the story I want to tell you today. When they saw that letter, they were fooled that I could not be working with Banjo and still had a document alleging inappropriate things against the woman. Remember we heard the woman was a girlfriend of Abacha’s and that she was on the payroll of the Nigerian government then.

I was taken to Nigeria on Saturday February 15. I was kidnapped at 10 p.m. Friday February 14, 1997. On Saturday, February 15, 1997, when I got to DMI, Apapa and they were interrogating me, that letter was brought out. It was that letter that saved me when Mustapha, Omenka and all of them arrived to interrogate me. I was grilled for twelve hours. That letter that I wrote in which I said I did not cause the escape of Professor and Mrs. Banjo, and that it was the UNHCR woman that did it, that was what saved my life.

So they asked me “why did you leave Nigeria?” I said because I could not practice anything. “Did you go to join PLAN?” I said “No”. “But you said it in your paper that there was only one way to remove Abacha, and that was through Armed Struggle. So did you go to Benin Republic to give effect to what you wrote two months ago?” I kept quiet.

So they produced the letter. I had written it in English and I got a professor friend of mine at the University of Benin in Cotonouto translate it into French. Very good French. I had a copy in English. They produced it. When they read it there, they started looking at themselves. And I said this letter confirmed that I wasn’t a member of PLAN. I was very diplomatic otherwise…

But in actual fact you were a member of PLAN.

I have just told you now that I wasn’t a member because of some of the things that I disagreed with Banjo over. The idea of voodoo. There was no meticulous plan. Why smuggle arms and ammunition through Benin Republic? Only a fool and tactless person would do that. Benin is just an annex of Nigeria. Why not go to Senegal. Even to Gambia. Why not go to Congo. Or Sudan, the largest country in Africa where one could be in an enclave and no one would know. I just don’t know. PLAN was not planned well.

And I told Prof. Banjo. But that doesn’t mean that I should betray them, because they offered me money. S. Adoli, the Nigerian Ambassador sent emissaries to me that if I betrayed Banjo they would pay me, and I said no way.

How much were they offering sir?

Well, I don’t know and I did not care to know.

Were they non- specific?

No. It was that letter that I wrote. The woman left Benin Republic within 24 hours. She just vamoosed. And I found out that she is in Kenya now. They were after her life because she was collecting money from the Nigerian government. I told you that Abacha was allegedly sleeping with her. She was telling them that I was the one who caused the escape of Banjo.

I did not need to argue for myself, the letter that I wrote nailed her. I did not submit the letter to President Mathew Kerekou, it was just a back-up plan. I knew that they would come for me. They were so desperate. God inspired me to write that letter and I sold them a dummy. When Omenka and Al Mustapha saw the letter they said that it was the woman they were paying who betrayed them and not me. That was why I was not killed that night.

But they still went ahead to torture you, in spite of that?

Yes. But torture is different from killing.

I want to know what the holding cell looked like.

It was a gulag. Rodents co-habit with humans. Once you entered the place, you can’t know your way out. It was a real dungeon. An underground tunnel. I was there by myself. When I got here, to the U.S., I was still having flashbacks and nightmares. It was a harrowing experience. I’m o.k. now. It was not a pleasant experience. (Voice increasingly became pensive) I was there for two years. I was quarantined. I did not have any contact with any human being. I was thinking that they did not want to shoot me but knew a civilian would not survive the place because that was the same place they kept late Gen. Mamman Vatsa.They just wanted me to die somehow and that my body would be collected and that would be it.

Understand that one of my cousins was one of those who interrogated me. They did not know. He is still in the system. He pretended that he did not know me. That was the cousin with whom I lived when Babangida took over power. He did not torture me. He pretended that he did not know me.

So you did actually drive Professor Banjo to Ghana?

I did not drive him. I ordered a cab for them. I took them to a hotel. It was a non-descript hotel. Nobody knew that they were there. The UNHCR guy wanted me to take them out at night. I made up my mind that I would take them out in broad day light.

The Nigerian Security people didn’t know that they could come out in the afternoon. Bad things happen at night. They were waiting for them at night. We got to Benin Togo border at 11 a.m. The Nigerian goons were there from 12 midnight to 6 a.m. I hired the taxi like any other passenger. I did it through my United Nations Card.

They stopped us at the border, I flashed my card and I said I was taking U.N. Official to Ghana, they waved us on. And then I returned.

Were you indeed suspended, hanged downwards to roast gradually on a burning stove while at DMI dungeon? Was it that bad?

(Laugh) It borders on exaggeration. You know I said it in my column. It was exaggerated.

You mean that never happened?

Well, I wasn’t tortured to that level. All that fire thing, no, no.

You were only released after Abacha died?

Remember there was a fight at DMI. They were not coordinated. Sabo was the second in command to… There was a lady military officer that used to come to me at night. We were exchanging information. She could not have access to my place. She was the one who went to Bamaiyi to tell him about my case.

Remember Alima Asuku from Kogi state, a girlfriend of Abacha’s was there. She had four children for Abacha. The lady was from Okene. She was detained with us. She was very nice. She was nice to
Ishaya Bamaiyi was the only military officer who visited me in the underground tunnel after my case had been presented to him by the lady military officer. We spoke. Bamaiyi thought that if Abacha died, he would step into Abacha’s shoes. God had shown me that Abacha would die.

Did you tell him that?

Yes. The message was open. I told the lady as well. Omenka and all of them heard me when I said that Abacha was going to die. I started saying it in 1997. Almost a year before Abacha died. It was an open thing.

And it was not as if you had any clandestine plan with anybody?

No. Just a vision from God.

When you said that to the military intelligence people, did they accuse you of treasonable felony?

They thought I was crazy. They asked if it was going to be through a coup. I said I don’t know but that the man was going to die. And it happened like that. And I made up my mind. From there, we knew they were going to bring… Up till today, Nigerians do not know how Abacha and Abiola died and how they arranged for Obasanjo to become the President. I shall now place that information and the dots to connect it all at your disposal. It was Babangida and the northern oligarchy that planned it all. Obasanjo is just an Uncle Tom. The slave in the house. He is not in the inner caucus of anything. He is a cannon fodder.

You don’t see the names of those Hausa Fulanis who rule Nigeria on the pages of Nigerian newspapers. They do not speak Hausa. They speak Fulfulde. They speak the language of the Fulani. They traced their lineage to Othman (or Usman) Dan Fodio. They are sworn to rule Nigeria from the North until they deep their Koran inside the (ocean) and make all Nigerians to become Moslems. They are still active inside Nigeria today.

Most Yorubas, Urhobo, Edo, Ibos, Deltas, Ijaws, Efik, Ibibio and Nothern Minorities do not know what is happening. There is internal colonialism going on in Nigeria. All the talk of Adamawa, Sokoto, Bauchi is rubbish. There is only one Hausa-Fulani oligarchy.

That is why people much resist the attempt at making our children second class citizens in that country. Awolowo saw it very early in the life of the Republic. Abiola saw it too. When you have your own money, you will have a voice. The only person that they have even been able to buy over is Obasanjo. He is their errand boy.

But Obasanjo would argue to the contrary, sir.

It doesn’t matter. It is like saying there is no God. It does not remove the fact. You wake up in the morning; you see His creation, the sun and daylight…

Nigerians in my generation think we should stay inside one nation and engineer a good political culture.

For eight years that Obasanjo governed, he could not do anything. All these things you are hearing from me, if we were in Nigeria, no newspapers would carry it. This idea of Babangida’s past was what Bola Ige had when he became Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. He had all the papers on Babangida and his gang. He was coming to the U.S. to expose him and they had to kill him. Did you know that?

Not exactly. So you are saying that was why he was assassinated?

Yes. Obasanjo knows this fact. Let him speak up. He said it himself that Bola Ige did not know his left from his right. These are some of the dirty things that they needed to perpetuate. That was why Babangida brought Aliyu Mohammed (Gusau) back. The story could not come out now in Nigerian papers. It is when the man dies that Nigerian journalists would be pretending to be investigating.

Are you saying that Nigerian journalists are lazy?

The so-called Nigerian mainstream media has always been like that. That is why Babangida always says “I know Nigerians”. He has spread his tentacles and has bought into all of them.

We know credible Nigerians like Professor Wole Soyinka and even leaders from the North are talking about these things.

Why are they not saying it openly? Prof Soyinka, I respect. He has international clout, but he had one or two things to do with Babangida. Although his intentions were pure, Babangida granted him some favors in order to later arm string him and shut him up.

Do you know what those one or two things are sir?

Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi was one of Wole Soyinka’s lieutenants. Ogunbiyi’s job was on the line at the Guardian. I worked in the Guardian then. His appointment was terminated. He approached Alex Ibru that Ogunbiyi should be retained and nothing was done. He was annoyed. So Soyinka approached Babangida. And that was how Dr. Ogunbiyi became the Managing Director of Daily Times. Ogunbiyi eventually gave me a job at the Daily Times. I am confessing that. Ogunbiyi went to Daily Times and made his money. Babangida knows how to apply rude squeeze. Soyinka does not owe him anything. At least he did not collect anything directly from Babangida. I know that alright. But like I said when you do me a favor, you could expect something in return.

Even in the death of Dele Giwa, Prof. Soyinka and Dr. Ogunbiyi would have known. Remember that Ogunbiyi was the Master of Ceremony at the funeral of Dele Giwa. And he was the Director of Publicity at the Guardian.

Sully Abu, Stanley Macebuh, Andy Akporugo, Ogunbiyi were all close to Dele Giwa. They knew why IBB killed their friend. Nobody wants to talk. They are all still alive. That’s why I am talking from the U.S. now. This is a challenge to them.

Andy Akporugo is dead. Segun Osoba is still alive. They should come out and tell Nigerians what they know. They know why Babangida killed Dele Giwa. They all had the story that Dele Giwa had. But they can’t publish it. And I was the only one who published it. That is the truth.

Let us go back a little bit. The lady, Gloria Okon, identified as a drug courier for IBB and his wife, who was she? Is she still alive or not?

Well Dr. Taiwo Ogunade, like I said, my colleague, has already told us the whole story. What else would you want me to add?

What did he say?

He said that Gloria Okon is still alive and that she changed her name and lives in London.

You want to challenge her to come into the open and say what she knows?

Well, Dr. Ogunade said it and nobody has contradicted him. I am waiting for the day Babangida will come into the U.S. He goes everywhere and he doesn’t come here. His wife did, but we want him to come and then we shall dock him…

But he can argue that his situation is about subverting civil governance and not about being a drug baron or a murderer?

Let him come here and that issue would be … Do you know how many people he killed? Idiagbon is dead. But Buhari is still alive. He should speak up. He knows why his government was toppled. I challenge him to come out and speak out about why he was toppled.

I disagree with you on how you trump Buhari as honest and all that. He was in Abacha’s government. He served as Head of Petroleum Trust Fund. Idiagbon’s son also served with him. They were part of the looting gang…

You see, among thieves, there is honor. Tell me who doesn’t steal in Nigeria. When I say I respect him, Local Government Chairmen, they all steal. But you cannot compare between how Buhari would steal with Abacha’s voracious hunger for money, power, women and all of that. In the company of thieves, there is always a little bit of honor.

Like Babangida and Abacha, these are sophisticated highway armed robbers. They are rapacious looters. Their level of corruption you cannot compare with that of Buhari. That is what I am saying. Abacha, Obasanjo, Babangida are international highway robbers.

You can’t redeem Obasanjo and Babangida.

How did your family cope during your incarceration?

I have acknowledged my gratitude to a lot of people. Dr. kayode Fayemi, Prof. Wole Soyinka, people in the pro–democracy fold. People in Republic of Benin – especially the Yoruba speaking area. The West African Journalists Association, my friend, Bunmi Aborishade, Mr. Amikal Kabrah in Ghana,… Reporters Without Borders, Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

You haven’t gone back to Nigeria since you came in 1999.

Yes. And I am never going to go back. I am a U.S. citizen forever.

But you can be told that your struggle has culminated in democratic rule?

No. Which democracy in which Babangida still rules by proxy? In which David Mark who once said that telephone is not for the poor is leading the senate? Mark who stole the telecommunications sector dry is ruling again in our time. You say that is democracy? You know Muktar, one of the Babangida boys is now at the NSA. The same set of deceptive characters is ruling.

Which democracy? The one in which election results are ready before people go to cast their votes?

What should we do to earn the respect of the world?

There is no leadership in Nigeria. It is an organized chaotic place. The followership should push for complete reorganization of the country. Northerners demonstrated on June 12 that they cannot release people from servitude voluntarily. They are still in control. I don’t know why we suffer from collective amnesia. Everybody is suffering from attention deficit disorder (ADD). They merely brought Obasanjo to assuage the injustice. Obasanjo was governing but he was not in power. He thanked them for the eight years they gave to him and they said “thank you boy”. That’s all they did (laughs).

If you own a house, you go into any room. You tell your tenants where they have as their own place. You don’t jump anyhow. They collected the keys from Obasanjo. That’s what they did. The Southerners are tenants in Nigeria, the Northerners are the landlords.

So they gave it to Obasanjo, supposedly on behalf of the Yorubas because of the death of Abiola. And then everybody started shouting and said eh! Look at the man who midwife the so-called democracy. Abdulsalami Abubakar, it was Babangida who planted him there. He wanted to retire, Babangida said don’t leave, you will still do one thing for me (laughs). And then Babangida called all the Generals and said they no longer needed to stage coup anymore.

We know who they would want to give power to because results were ready even before elections. That’s because the media is owned by the big guys. Most of the guys in the media are hungry. How much do they pay them? Once you lose your job that’s it. You saw how Godwin Agthey treated Godwin Agbroko. No insurance, nothing. Your family would just suffer. It is just struggle for survival in Nigeria, that’s all.

How many Nigerian newspaper houses have insurance for their workers? Is there any culture of insurance ever in Nigeria? The question is that how many of the journalists are even being paid what they are worth? Everybody is just doing it to put food on the table. Take your children to the school. Everybody is in survival mode. So which media? That’s why they carry same headline all the time (laughs).

Do they even have the money to look for stories? That is why they have myriads of awards. “Governor of the Year”. It’s all rubbish (Laughs). How many of them have the money to investigate stories? Is it Compass that is owned by Gbenga Daniel? People are suffering. Unless you are in government, you have to steal. It is that bad.

That is why I asked why my friend Dr. Fayemi should go and stay in Nigeria. There is no newspaper in Nigeria. Look at the way you guys are serializing the Biography of M.K.O. Abiola. I issued the challenge to Nigerian newspapers to serialize it free. None of them has been able to take up the challenge. Nigeria is a failure. That is why I am one hundred percent behind the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND). I don’t hide it. That is what we need in Nigeria. Until the landlord/tenant relationship between the north and south stops, the problem would continue. The North wants to corner power for life, that is not a nation, even if it happens like that in America, people will fight. You remember how the blacks rejected slavery here.

MEND may be accused of anarchy and brigandage…

No. The brigands are in Abuja. Those leaders in Abuja are the brigands. MEND is what Nigeria deserves. Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. Should you and I be outside Nigeria if we have good leaders and good governance? If not for divine intervention do you know what Abacha was planning for Nigeria? When I published it that Abacha had stolen three billion were they not calling Razor junk publication?

All the stories that we are just hearing now, do you know that I carried them almost twenty years ago, while the so-called mainstream press were blackmailing me that my stories were junk. If Abacha did not die, would we have known that he coveted 7 billion out of Nigeria? That was a man who spent just five years. Do you know how much Babangida stole in eight years? Do you know how much Obasanjo stole in eight years? Plus the one he stole when he first came? How much were they paying him in the military that could make him own that Otta farm? So we know those who were stealing in Nigeria.

Just give me the opportunity and I would release the list of Nigerians and how much they own in their foreign accounts. When I published it in Razor in 1994, were they not blackmailing me?

All those stories that later came out at Oputa Panel in Nigeria, I was the first to publish them.

This disclosure after years of the fire-bombing of Dele Giwa, I was the only one who carried it in Nigeria. The so called established press, even his friends and partners were scared to touch it. They only wanted money to take care of their families. None of them could come out to say “ah why? Why did you have to kill our colleague?” The worst that could happen would be to go into exile. Must they practice in Nigeria? But because of money. And Babangida had the audacity to go to Newswatch and buy shares and they allowed him. That is how you know that most of Nigerian journalists are silly. They cannot fight for anything. They are only interested in money. That’s all. There is no one who is interested in honest leadership in Nigeria.

Why would you consider it fair to pin all the mis-governance on Hausa/Fulani area. You know other individuals from other tribes and parts of Nigeria are guilty as well…

People who are students of history, especially those who have studied the Hausa/Fulani oligarchy, if you have read a book by J.F.A. Ade – Ajayi, Africa in the Nineteenth Century, it is about the history, explained the history of Hausa State, talks of the arrival of one Baya Jida from the Middle East who married the Queen of Daura. I think from the present Katsina State.

And between them they had seven Hausa sons who are called the Banza Bakwai. And then there were seven other illegitimate sons of same man. The seven illegitimate sons later formed the fourteen Hausa States. Daura, Katsina, Zau Zau (Zaria), Kano, Rano and Biram, Gwandu

The Fulanis arrived in the Northern area and conquered the Hausas. Hausas and Fulani had historically been separate people. I studied African History at the graduate level and learned from respectable and unbiased professors; the best in the field. It is important that people understand this story, and eventually, the Fulani legitimized their power over the Hausas and imposed their religion and ways of life on the Hausas. Historically, Hausas were not Moslems; their religion was what they called Maigazuya or Maigazurra kind of religion. This comprised magic, witchcraft and all the rest, mixed with Islam. The Fulanis came and emasculated the Hausas, changed their religion and even their ways of life. Today, these Fulanis who speak Fulfude are in Northern Nigeria. They became Hausa-Fulani and are determined to turn Nigeria into an Islamic enclave. This is the war that Chief Obafemi Awolowo fought to resist; we are still fighting it today in Nigeria.
People do not know what is happening and that is why I said those who are ruling Nigeria, who are destroying that nation, you can count them, a handful of them. What they do is that they believe that political, religious and economic powers in Nigeria belong to them. They see others as second-class citizens, they are full of hubris. The way they operate is to plant Emirs in even non-Moslem and non-Hausa-Fulani towns and villages. Can you believe that Lafia in Nassarawa State with just a handful of Hausa-Fulani should be governed by an Emir? I served in Ilorin, Kwara State during my NYSC and could count the number of Hausa-Fulani resident in that city yet they are ruled by an Emir.

While we, in the South are running after money, not yet able to put our acts together, these people have perfected how they are going to rule Nigeria forever. Yorubas, Ibos,Ibibios, Efik, Benin, Kalabaris, Itshekiri and the rest in the South should wake up otherwise our children and grandchildren will curse us in our graves after we have gone. They will ask just as my children are asking me now in America; Daddy, what did you do? Are you just watching?. There is discrimination in Nigeria to the level that since the 1960’s no person outside the Hausa – Fulani oligarchy has ruled Nigeria. The two periods under southern leadership was more or less accidental.

The death, the assassination of Muritala Mohammed paved the way for Obasanjo to rule in the 1976 and after a democratically acclaimed election was held in 1993, the only person who could represent the genuine aspirations of Nigerians, M.K.O. Abiola was stopped by the oligarchy. They brought their man, Olusegun Obasanjo, to rule again. Between 1976-1979, Obasanjo was not even ruling; the power really was in the hands of the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, the elder brother of the one there now; Umaru. The late General Olufemi Olutoye once narrated a story in his autobiography where he said, immediately Obasanjo was sworn into office in 1976 following Muritala Muhammed’s death, he came to Doddan Barracks and explained the situation of other ethnic tribes to him in federal appointments and the need to redress anomaly. He left after his discussions with Obasanjo and few hours later, Obasanjo set for him. The late Gen. Musa Yar’Adua, the then Chuef
of Staff Supreme Headquarters was already waiting and in the latter’s presence, Obasanjo asked him to repeat what he had just said few hours earlier. He, Olutoye repeated what he told Obasanjo. The following morning, Olutoye’s retirement was announced on the FRCN. It was so bad in the 1970s down till the 1990s that some Southerners in the Nigerian Military had to change their names to Mohammed, Umaru and even converted into Islam to get promotion. I knew those Southerners who left the Nigerian Army out of frustration because of this nonsense. The fact of the matter is there is no Nigerian Army, what we have is Northern Nigerian Army. We cannot continue like this as a people, Southerners must assert their legitimate rights in their own fatherland or we go our separate ways, period.

Do you know I have more rights as a Nigerian-American here in the United States than my native land Nigeria?

So look at Nigerian history, by next year, we shall be fifty years old as a nation. No non-Northerner has always earned a genuine mandate for the aspirations of our people. They control the military; this is the reality, the internal colonization of the country that I am talking about.

The southerners must sit down and organize and say that it is either they are accepted as equals or everybody must go his own way.

What is the real legitimate reason for the annulment of June 12 elections? What do you know in view of the fact that some people claim IBB had intelligence, almost incontrovertible that Abiola was a CIA operative?

Some analysts say Babangida was pressurized, this and that, in annulling that election. That was hogwash. A person, a rogue, a coup plotter like Babangida, a former drug baron like Babangida, could not be pushed by anybody. They even said what they wanted you journalists to believe that some officers in the military put a gun to his head. That did not happen. Which officer could do that so that he could annul the election? These are the rubbish they are feeding Nigerians. It is so sad that those who called themselves leaders appear on television and lie barefaced to Nigerians and we believe them. These are not men and women of honor, I tell you. They lie, they steal and they kill. Since 1960, the act of governance, administration has always been in secrecy. There are two stories to every government decision and policy in Nigeria as I have pointed out to you. Two levels of information exist in Nigeria, to create a façade and avoid public
scrutiny. Political actors give us two stories, the official story and the unofficial story. And the Nigerian press goes with the official story. They are part and parcel of the official. That organized conspiracy was elevated to official pastime during the disastrous years called the IBB years. You know they always appeared on television or during their media chats with these ludicrous epithets; “We do not run our government on the pages of newspapers.” Remember?

Even the so-called Obasanjo “elected government, you hear them telling Nigerians “oh this government is not run on the pages of newspapers”.

Why should government not be run on the pages of newspapers? In a democracy? That is why you will know that there are two versions of stories. The truth, which only few people would be privy to are the official stories that they use the media to push out to the Nigerian Public. That was what happened on June 12.

We all know that June 12 is the ultimate culmination of the 1985 coup of survival which Babangida staged for self – preservation.

Let us be frank, the man did not want to leave the place. He was coming out with the idea of diarchy. He sent people like Mukoro Tony Nyiam to study the idea in Egypt, Santiago in Chile, and an admixture of civilian and military leadership. That was what the man was planning until Abiola decided to contest. Of course you know the story of how Abiola emerged as the candidate of the then Social Democratic Party S.D.P. Abiola was able to emerge as the presidential flag bearer as the SDP in Jos as late Major – General Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua discovered that, Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe was pealing away votes from Atiku Abubakar for Abiola.

The forces of Atiku and Abiola teamed up and worked for

You removed a governor for stealing N300000....well, I guess he didn't cooperate........and then you stole billions..

[size=18pt]31 August 1985 - ITN news (video clip)
New Military Ruler Ibrahim Babangida (IBB), releases 87 politicians and others imprisoned by Buhari for corruption and other crimes including detained British citizen Mr Coveyduck[/size]

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1985/08/31/AS310885003/?s=nigeria&st=2&pn=93&sortBy=date








[size=18pt]1st September 1985 - The New York Times
Ibrahim Babangida releases 87 from jail[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, Aug. 31— Nigeria's new military Government today began freeing scores of people detained by the country's former rulers.

The Armed Forces Ruling Council, whose leaders took power in a coup four days ago, on Friday night ordered the release of 87 people jailed by the former regime.

The 87 included former Cabinet ministers, state governors, journalists and foreign businessmen.

Nigeria's new leader, Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, said the detainees were being set free as part of his policy to end human rights abuses.

A spokesman said that the cases of other prisoners would be reviewed and that many were likely to be set free.

Many of the prisoners released today were rounded up in anti-corruption drives. Others had been held for months without formal charges.


https://www.nairaland.com/693700/gov-akume-survives-political-assassination/4

berem: IBB fine no be small! Even at 71 he still looks charming. Abeg has he remarried? Am very much interested to be his wife.

Dat show he's vry strong nd all dis haters wit big mouth cnt do anyting thr's no Man lyk IBB 2 day in dis 9ja thump up I hail u IBB enamys fire burn.

Kayusfity:


GOLD DIGGER. STOOPID HO.E

Waz ur problem dude he said if he want carry anoda wife not gal frnd free ur hate ass hole.

IBB, you can say what you like, but
those who said you institutionalized
corruption are absolutely correct. You
laid the foundation, and upon the
foundation, the gigantic, encompassing
and monstrous house of corruption was
built.

Before IBB, it never entered the mind of
politicians that you can be stealing
money in tens of millions and billions.
What do you need all that money for?
What would remain to spend for the
common man? But IBB changed all that
in Nigeria.

Then in order to please the Americans,
he brought in SAP and turned the value
of the naira to nonsense and ruined the
economy. IBB was the beginning of the
fall of Nigeria economically. Before himn
the standard of living of the common
man was quite high. I remember clearly
that Sardine which has become a choice
recipe today was the food of labourers.
They just but bread, buy one sardine
and pour it in the middle.

But IBB, if it makes you sleep better at
night, you can keep telling yourself
what you are telling yourself.

However, history will put what you have
done in proper perspective - that you
will be remembered as the leader who
laid the foundation of the hydra-headed
monster, CORRUPTION.

@ GENBUHARI ur a good history student.

IBB, you can say what you like, but
those who said you institutionalized
corruption are absolutely correct. You
laid the foundation, and upon the
foundation, the gigantic, encompassing
and monstrous house of corruption was
built.

Before IBB, it never entered the mind of
politicians that you can be stealing
money in tens of millions and billions.
What do you need all that money for?
What would remain to spend for the
common man? But IBB changed all that
in Nigeria.

Then in order to please the Americans,
he brought in SAP and turned the value
of the naira to nonsense and ruined the
economy. IBB was the beginning of the
fall of Nigeria economically. Before himn
the standard of living of the common
man was quite high. I remember clearly
that Sardine which has become a choice
recipe today was the food of labourers.
They just but bread, buy one sardine
and pour it in the middle.

But IBB, if it makes you sleep better at
night, you can keep telling yourself
what you are telling yourself.

However, history will put what you have
done in proper perspective - that you
will be remembered as the leader who
laid the foundation of the hydra-headed
monster, CORRUPTION.

IBB . . .the ev.il genuis can keep singing of his "virtues" from now till he meets his grave. Only a lunati.c will take him seriously. D masses whose doom he helped 2 seal shd know better. Eyaa! IBB suddenly became such a saint?

Why did't you remove yourself when you diverted our oil blocks?
READ THE GOOD WORKS OF THIS SAINT:[color=#990000][/color]

How Babangida, Abacha, Obasanjo Shared Nigeria’s Oil Blocks

Published on Friday, 27 April 2012 11:24
Written by Obinna Akukwe
Hits: 359


The process of sharing Nigeria’s oil block national cake is as fraudulent now as when Ibrahim Babangida started the process of discretionary allocation of oil blocks to indigenous firms. Discretionary allocation of oil blocks entails that a president can reward a mistress who performs wonderfully with an oil block with capacity for cumulative yield of over $20 billion dollars without recourse to any process outside of manhood attachments. Babangida, Abacha, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo awarded discretionary oil blocks to friends, associates, family members, party chieftains, security chiefs and all categories of bootlickers, spokespersons and cult members without any laid down procedures.

The recipients of such oil blocks will get funds from ever willing offshore financiers and partners to graciously settle the benefactors, the awarders, facilitators and the Commander-in-Chief through fronts. These settlements mostly paid into foreign accounts runs into hundreds of millions of dollars according to the potential yield of the block. Sometimes, the awarder (sharer of national cake and direct intermediaries) demand additional stakes in the bidding company. The awarder sends fronts as part of the directorship and management of the bidding firms without leaving a link to them. That is how the oil block national cake is distributed to a few Nigerians.

Signature bonuses which are paid when an investor successfully bids, wins and signs agreement with the petroleum ministry, running into tens of millions and sometimes hundreds of millions of naira ,is often waived off. There is actually no waiver; rather a diversion of what would have been paid to government t coffers is paid into private purse as appreciation gifts. That is why those in the Petroleum Ministry dread retirement as though it signifies going to hell fire. No matter how little your influence, something substantial must enter your hands especially in hard currency. The nation loses billions of dollars in diverted revenue whenever any round of auction occurs.

OML 110 with high yield OBE oil fields was given Cavendish Petroleum owned by Alhaji Mai Daribe, the Borno Patriarch in 1996 by Sanni Abacha. OBE oil field has estimated over 500 million barrels of oil. In layman’s language and using average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel, translates to $50 billion dollars worth of oil reserve. When you remove the taxes, royalties and sundry duties worth about 60% of the reserve payable over time you get about $20billion dollars worth of oil in the hands of a family.

OPL 246 was awarded to SAPETRO, a company owned by General Theophilus Danjuma, by Sanni Abacha in 1998. Akpo condensate exports about 300,000 barrels of crude daily.

OML 112 and OML 117 were awarded to AMNI International Petroleum Development Company owned by Colonel Sanni Bello in 1999. Sanni Bello is an inlaw to Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Head of State of Nigeria.

OML 115, OLDWOK Field and EBOK field was awarded to Alhaji Mohammed Indimi from Niger State. Indimi is an inlaw to former Military President Ibrahim Babangida.

OML 215 is operated by Nor East Petroleum Limited owned by Alhaji Saleh Mohammed Gambo.

OML 108 is operated by Express Petroleum Company Limited is owned by Alhaji Aminu Dantata.

OML II3 allocated to Yinka Folawiyo Pet Ltd is owned by Alhaji W.I. folawiyo

ASUOKPU/UMUTU marginal oil fields is operated by Seplat Petroleum. Seplat is owned by Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, cousin to the Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi. This oil field has the capacity of 300,000 barrels of oil daily. This translates to $30million dollars daily at average benchmark of $100 dollars per barrel. Deducting all sundry taxes, royalties etc , this field can yield $12billion dollars daily for the owners .

Intel owned by Atiku, Yarádua and Ado Bayero has substantial stakes in Nigeria’s oil exploration industry both in Nigeria and Principe and Sao Tome.

AMNI owns two oil blocks OML 112 and OML 117 which it runs Afren plc and Vitol has substantial stakes in oil blocks. Afren plc is operating EBOK oil fields in OML 67. Vitol lifts 300,000 barrels of Nigerian oil daily. Rilwanu Lukman, former OPEC Chairman has stakes in all these named three companies.

OPL 245 was awarded to Malabu Oil& Gas Company by Sanni Abacha. Dan Etete, Abacha’s oil minister owns Malabu Oil. In 2000, Vice President Atiku Abubakar convinced Obasanjo to revoke OPL 245 given to Malabu Oil. Etete had earlier rejected Atiku’s demand for substantial stakes in the high yield OPL 245 and it attracted the venom of Ota Majesty who revoked the licence. However, in 2006, Obasanjo had mercy on Dan Etete and gave him back his oil block worth over $20 billion dollars.

OPL 289 and OPL 233 was awarded during Obasanjo era to Peter Odili fronts, Cleanwater Consortium, consisting of Clenwater Refinery and RivGas Petroleum and Gas Company. Odili’s brother in law, Okey Ezenwa manages the consortium as Vice Chairman.

OPL 286 is managed by Focus Energy in partnership with BG Group, a British oil concern. Andy Uba has stakes in Focus Energy and his modus operandi is such that you can never see his name in any listings yet he controls OPL and OML through proxies

OPL 291 was awarded to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Limited, owned by Emeka Offor by Obasanjo . Immediately after the award, Starcrest sold the oil block to Addax Petroleum Development Company Limited (ADDAX) Addax paid Sir Emeka Offor a farming fee of $35million dollars and still paid the signature bonus to the government. Emeka Offor still retains stake in ADDAX operations in Nigeria.

Mike Adenuga’s Conoil is the oldest indigenous oil exploration industry in Nigeria. Conoil has six oil blocks and exports above 200,000 barrels of crude daily.

The oil block national cake sharing fiesta could take twists according to the mood of the Commander-in –Chief at the particular time. In 2006, Obasanjo revoked OPL 246 which Abacha gave to Danjuma because he refused to support the tenure elongation bid of the Ota Majesty. In 2000, Obasanjo had earlier revoked OPL 241 given to Dan Etete under the advice Atiku. However, when the Obasanjo-Atiku faceoff started, the Ota Majesty made a u-turn and handed back the oil block to Etete.

During the time of Late President Yarádua , a panel headed by Olusegun Ogunjana was set up to investigate the level of transparency in the award of oil blocks. The panel recommended that 25 oil blocks awarded by the Obasanjo be revoked because the manner they were obtained failed to meet the best practices in the industry. Sadiq Mahmood, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum endorsed the report to then president with all its recommendations. As a result of the report Yarádua revoked eleven oil blocks.

In April 2011 Mike Adenuga attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for $1.2 billion dollars. The Minister for Petroleum and Nigeria’s most powerful woman refused the sale of the OML30 to Adenuga citing national interest. This block was later sold to Heritage Oil for $800 million dollars eleven months later.

This oil block business is so lucrative that Danjuma’s Sapetro divested of its investment in Akpo condensate for $1billion dollars. This business is second to none in Nigeria. That is why any attempt to investigate the activities in this sector will always be futile. The money is so much that they give bribes in millions of dollars. A birthday gift or child naming gift from an oil block owner to a government official could be as paltry as $2million dollars, and if the official’s father died, the condolence gift could reach mere $3 million dollars. When they want to bribe legislators, it is in millions of dollars and any ongoing investigation ends within weeks. They are so confident that with excess money they can buy up Nigeria and they are succeeding

In the name of competitive bidding, which Obasanjo introduced in 2005, Officials bring companies overnight and through processes best described as secretive and voodooist they award blocks to party faithful, fronts and phoney companies. They collect gratifications running into hundreds of millions of dollars which is paid into offshore account and the nation loses billions of dollars of revenue to private pockets.

During the third term agenda, Obasanjo was deceived that the allocation of oil block to party faithfuls is to fund the third term agenda. With the failure of the third term, the beneficiaries went home with their fortunes and thanked God or Allah for buttering their bread. Senator Andy Uba co ordinate the award of the last rounds of oil block by Obasanjo in 2005 and 2007. The then minister of petroleum, Edwin Daukoru was a mere errand boy who took instructions from the presidential aide.

The regime of President Goodluck is not showing any signs of changing the status quo. Controversies have trailed the activities of the Minister of Petroleum and many players in the Industry accuse her of demanding stakes from every oil deal. It is hoped that President Goodluck Jonathan will remember his transformational promise to Nigerians and endeavour to face the hawks in the oil industry. The angst in the air is so much that if this monster of illegal allocation of oil block is not addressed, the much touted revolution could begin all of a sudden and all who condoned this illegality at the expense of hungry Nigerians may have nowhere to hide.

The religious leaders should tell these oil block beneficiaries, awarders, fronts, brokers and all involved in short changing the Nigerian people to find means or returning all these back to the Nigerian people, through massive development projects. They should curtail their constant visits to Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem for prayers and attend to the poverty they spread in the land. They should build affordable secondary schools, universities, specialist hospitals, roads, silos, etc for the Nigerian people. They should fund talent development programmes and sponsor activities capable of alleviating poverty. The voice of impoverished Nigerians is crying daily and if care is not taken the God who delivered Nigeria from Abacha dark days will visit them with calamities untold. With the rot in this oil block awarding system and other loot all over the Nigerian nation, something worse than revolution may happen.

Obinna Akukwe

One wonders how you he acquired all the billions. He must have worked very hard for it! What a hard-working guy, what a gem!

IBB= world best, african player of d century, epitome of corruption, maradona.i hail thee!!!!!!

IBB, you can say what you like, but
those who said you institutionalized
corruption are absolutely correct. You
laid the foundation, and upon the
foundation, the gigantic, encompassing
and monstrous house of corruption was
built.

Before IBB, it never entered the mind of
politicians that you can be stealing
money in tens of millions and billions.
What do you need all that money for?
What would remain to spend for the
common man? But IBB changed all that
in Nigeria.

Then in order to please the Americans,
he brought in SAP and turned the value
of the naira to nonsense and ruined the
economy. IBB was the beginning of the
fall of Nigeria economically. Before himn
the standard of living of the common
man was quite high. I remember clearly
that Sardine which has become a choice
recipe today was the food of labourers.
They just but bread, buy one sardine
and pour it in the middle.

But IBB, if it makes you sleep better at
night, you can keep telling yourself
what you are telling yourself.

However, history will put what you have
done in proper perspective - that you
will be remembered as the leader who
laid the foundation of the hydra-headed
monster, CORRUPTION.

IBB IS NOT 95.9% MARADONA ,BUT 100% MARADONA. A COMPLETE MARADONA ( MASTER DRIBBLER ).
IBB NERVER ANSWER QUESTIONS,BUT DRIBBLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
MAY GOD HELP YOU IBB, TO REPENT BEFORE YOU WILL DIE.

IBB IS NOT 95.9% MARADONA ,BUT 100% MARADONA. A COMPLETE MARADONA ( MASTER DRIBBLER ).
IBB NEVER ANSWER QUESTIONS,BUT DRIBBLE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
MAY GOD HELP YOU IBB, TO REPENT BEFORE YOU WILL DIE.

this man should just shut up already

adamscuti: IBB pls shut ur dirty mouth up. Is becos of u d naira lost it's value! U have done more harm than good in 9ja and rememba d M.K.O abiola and sani abacha saga,u were behind it.

I'm no big fan of the guy but if you want to accuse somebody of something, you have to do it with proof. So, where is yours?

I am now completely obsessed by Nigeria's history.
The blatant deception of the Nigerian masses over the years by IBB and his bosom frienf OBJ, is nothing less than staggering!

https://www.nairaland.com/693700/gov-akume-survives-political-assassination/4

DANILSA: @ GENBUHARI ur a good history student.

Freiburger: Come to think of it, his days was not as bad as what we are seeing today.

Just don't border urself because they're blinded by sentiment.

lanre_front: IBB, you can say what you like, but
those who said you institutionalized
corruption are absolutely correct. You
laid the foundation, and upon the
foundation, the gigantic, encompassing
and monstrous house of corruption was
built.

Before IBB, it never entered the mind of
politicians that you can be stealing
money in tens of millions and billions.
What do you need all that money for?
What would remain to spend for the
common man? But IBB changed all that
in Nigeria.

Then in order to please the Americans,
he brought in SAP and turned the value
of the naira to nonsense and ruined the
economy. IBB was the beginning of the
fall of Nigeria economically. Before himn
the standard of living of the common
man was quite high. I remember clearly
that Sardine which has become a choice
recipe today was the food of labourers.
They just but bread, buy one sardine
and pour it in the middle.

But IBB, if it makes you sleep better at
night, you can keep telling yourself
what you are telling yourself.

However, history will put what you have
done in proper perspective - that you
will be remembered as the leader who
laid the foundation of the hydra-headed
monster, CORRUPTION.

Rubbish!!!

[size=18pt]27 August 1985 - ITN News (video clip)

General Ibrahim B. Babangida (IBB) overthrows General Buhari in bloodless coup[/size]

NIGERIA COUP: Background to military coup in Nigeria, led 27.8.85 by Chief of Staff, Major General Ibrahim Babangida (named TX as the new President). The fate of former Pres, Maj Gen Mohammed Buhari, who swept Pres Shehu Shagari from power on 31.12.83 in order to end corruption & inflation, is not known.

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1985/08/27/AS270885003/?s=nigeria&st=2&pn=94&sortBy=date

[size=18pt]Wikipedia:[/size]

Babangida was the Chief of Army Staff and a member of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) under the administration of Major General Muhammadu Buhari.

Babangida would later overthrow Buhari's regime on 27 August 1985 in a bloodless military coup that relied on mid-level officers that Babangida silently and strategically positioned over the years.[citation needed]

He came into power in a military coup promising to bring to an end the human rights abuses perpetuated by Buhari's government, and to hand over power to a civilian government by 1990.[citation needed].
Eventually,he perpetuated one of the worst human right abuses and lots of unresolved political assassinations.[citation needed]

[size=18pt]1st October 1986 - BBC News
Babangida reaches agreement with IMF for a loan following huge devaluation of Naira[/size]

Arrangements that could make $1.5 billion available to Nigeria are in the final stages as a result of an accord between Africa's most populous country and the International Monetary Fund, officials said today. One official, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified, said Nigeria was seeking as much as $2 billion in additional loans from commercial banks.

[size=18pt]20th October 1986 - The New York Times
PARCEL BOMB KILLS NIGERIAN JOURNALIST DELE GIWA WHO WAS VERY CRITICAL OF IBB'S REGIME[/size]
A Nigerian journalist was killed today when a parcel bomb delivered to his home exploded. The journalist, Dele Giwa, editor in chief of Newswatch magazine, died in a Lagos hospital shortly after the explosion. Two other people in the room were slightly wounded, according to a Newswatch statement and Nigerian television.