A retired Colonel of the Nigerian Army, Babatunde Bello-Fadile, has claimed that the late General Sani Abacha would not have been able to seize power from the interim government of Ernest Sonekan if he had been allowed to take up his post as the Aide-De-Camp to the president.
Bello-Fadile made this statement on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political program aired on Channels Television.
He explained that although he was assigned to serve as Sonekan’s ADC, he was not allowed to resume his duties at the time.
He believes that if he had been in the position, the 1993 military coup led by Abacha would likely not have occurred.
He further explained that he was instructed by the Chief of Army Staff to wait for Sonekan’s return from a trip to Malta for the Commonwealth Heads of State meeting before resuming.
As a result, he was delayed in taking up his role, and by the time he was expected to join, the coup had already unfolded.
The events leading to the coup date back to 1993, following the controversial annulment of Nigeria’s presidential election, where MKO Abiola was widely believed to have won.
Recall that General Ibrahim Babangida, who had taken power in 1985 through a coup against General Muhammadu Buhari, resigned and established an interim government.
In this government, Sonekan served as president, and Abacha was appointed Chief of Defence Staff and Minister of Defence.
However, just three months into the interim government, on November 18, 1993, Abacha overthrew Sonekan in a palace coup.
More than 30 years later, Bello-Fadile described the circumstances surrounding Sonekan’s resignation as highly abnormal.
“I was posted to Sonekan. I don’t know why I was not allowed to resume. Still, if I had been ADC, it (the takeover) probably wouldn’t have happened. Why didn’t I resume? The Chief of Army Staff said I should wait until he (Sonekan) comes back from Malta where he went for the Commonwealth Head of State meeting that year. So, I was hanging around. The whole thing happened by the time he came back,” he said.
