The death of former Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha, averted the planned killing of top military officers who served in the administration, a source revealed at the weekend.

The military dictator passed away on June 8, 1998, almost five years after taking over the government.

According to the source, a plot was being hatched in the high corridor of power to get rid of the former Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, Chief of Air Staff, Marshall Nsikak-Abasi Eduok, Chief of General Staff Gen. Oladipo Diya, and Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Mike Akhigbe.

Diya was already convicted over his alleged involvement in a coup against his boss. The former Chief of General Staff later died naturally on March 26, 2023.

Akhigbe, who entered politics after his retirement in 1999, also died a natural death on October 28, 2013.

For a long, long time, what was in the public domain was that Abacha had planned to retire Gen. Abdulsalami and that his sudden death saved the career of the former Chief of Defence Staff.

However, the source said a major calamity would have hit the Armed Forces and the country if Abacha had not passed on.

“June 8, 1998 was the day Abacha died. It was to be the execution day for Diya. A security officer had given an order that he should be brought over. Some other things would have followed,” the source said.

Gen. Abacha assumed the reins after shoving aside the Head of National Interim Government (ING), the late Chief Ernest Shonekan, in November 1993.

Shonekan, a lawyer, boardroom guru and Chairman of the Transitional Council under Military President Ibrahim Babangida, became the interim leader after Babangida stepped aside in August 1993 after he annulled the results of the June 12, 1993 presidential election won by Chief Moshood Abiola, candidate of the proscribed Social Democratic Party (SDP).

After taking over, Abacha unfolded a self-succession plan that would have led to his transition into a civilian President.

Already, the five political parties, described by the late Chief Bola Ige as five fingers of a leprous hand, had endorsed him.

According to the source, the plan to get the top officers away was to prevent any threat to the controversial self-succession agenda, which heated the polity.

He said: “On that day, there was to be a Provisional Ruling Council (PRC) meeting. It is possible that Abdulsalami Abubakar later got to know this after he became Head of State. It is possible that when he took over, he saw the document in the drawer of Abacha’s desk.

“ What was there was that on that execution day, the PRC was to hold a meeting. They would pass through the gates. The first gate, you can pass freely. The second gate, you can also pass. But at the gate house of the third gate, you are thoroughly searched to ensure that you are unarmed.

“It was on that day Abdulsalami, Bamaiyi, Nsikak, Akhigbe were to be killed.”

The source added: “They would say they were resisting arrest after a putsch, in the aftermath of killing Abacha.”

Emphasising the motive behind the plot, the source, who was close to high military authorities at that time.

“The plan was to wipe out a generation of Generals who could serve as a hindrance.”

He also said, “he (Abacha) was to go to the lower class to pick a Brigadier-General as Chief of Army Staff.”

According to him, “ a lot of them who were members of the PRC, who were not loyal to him, were to be rounded up and kept in custody under a dreadful officer at Park Lane, Apapa. The officer fled the country after Abacha died.”

He added: “He (Abacha wanted to transmute into a civilian President. He wanted to emasculate the military. It is possible Abdulsalami got to know about it through a document when he became Head of State.”

Abacha had an illustrious career in the military. He was generally perceived as a gallant officer. As the General Officer Commanding, Second Mechanised Division, Ibadan, he announced the coup that sacked former President Shehu Shagari and brought Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to power.

After Babangida toppled Buhari, he became the Chief of Army Staff, and later, Chief of Defence Staff, Minister of Defence and Chairman, Joint Service Chiefs.

He ruled for five years at a time pro-democracy forces pressed for a return to civil rule after the death of Abiola, the Symbol of the June 12 struggle.

There are many allegations and denials by loyal aides about his administration after he passed on, some factual and substantiated, and others said to be hanging and falling into conjecture. (The Nation)