*Major Hamza Al-Mustapha's Prison notes
(Needs authentication)
Former Chief Security Officer (CSO)
to the late Head of State General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha is
apparently fighting a war he is ensnared in regrets.
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| Major Hamza Al-Mustapha |
Mustapha narrates the happenings
during the tenure he was the CSO to Gen. Abacha and how he would have gunned
down the man who succeeded his boss, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.
Below is the first part of the note:
“My Boss, General Sani Muhammad
Abacha, died at the early hours of Monday, 8th June, 1998. I had prepared him
for a workshop organised by the Federal Ministry of Information for that day as
he was expected to deliver an address as the Special Guest of Honour. His
speech was drafted and fine tuned by the Chief Press Secretary, David Attah who
had submitted it to the Aide-De Camp for vetting and necessary amendments by
the Commander-in-Chief.
When I got to the bedside of the
Head of State, he was already gasping. Ordinarily, I could not just touch him.
It was not allowed in our job. But under the situation on ground, I knelt close
to him and shouted, “General Sani Abacha, Sir, please grant me permission to
touch and carry you.”
“Contrary to insinuations,
speculations and sad rumours initiated by some sections of the society, I
maintain that the sudden collapse of the health system of the late Head of
State started the previous day (Sunday, 7th June, 1998) right from the Abuja
International Airport immediately after one of the white security operatives or
personnel who accompanied President Yasser Arafat of Palestine shook hands with
him (General Abacha) I had noticed the change in the countenance of the late
Commander-in-Chief and informed the Aide-de-Camp, Lt. Col. Abdallah,
accordingly.
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| General Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) |
He, however, advised that we keep a
close watch on him. Later in the evening of 8th June, 1998, around 6p.m, his
doctor came around, administered an injection to stabilise him. He was advised
to have a short rest. Happily, enough, by 9p.m he was bouncing and receiving
visitors until much later when General Jeremiah Timbut Useni, the then Minister
of the Federal Capital Territory, came calling. He was fond of the General.
They were very good friends. They stayed and chatted together till about
3.35a.m.
A friend of the house was with me in
my office and as he was bidding me farewell, he came back to inform me that the
FCT Minister, General Useni was out of the General’s Guest House within the
Villa.
“I then decided to inform the ADC
and other security boys that I would be on my way home to prepare for the early
morning event at the International Conference Centre. At about 5a.m, the
security guards ran to my quarters to inform me that the General was very
unstable. At first, I thought it was a coup attempt. Immediately, I prepared
myself fully for any eventuality. As an intelligence officer and the Chief
Security Officer to the Head of State for that matter, I devised a means of
diverting the attention of the security boys from my escape route by asking my
wife to continue chatting with them at the door – she was in the house while
the boys were outside. From there, I got to the Guest House of the Head of
State before them. When I got to the bedside of the Head of State, he was
already gasping.
Ordinarily, I could not just touch
him. It was not allowed in our job. But under the situation on ground, I knelt
close to him and shouted, “General Sani Abacha, Sir, please grant me permission
to touch and carry you.” I again knocked at the stool beside the bed and
shouted in the same manner, yet he did not respond. I then realised there was a
serious danger. I immediately called the Head of State’s personal physician,
Dr. Wali, who arrived the place under eight minutes from his house. He
immediately gave Oga – General Abacha – two doses of injection, one at the
heart and another close to his neck.”
“This did not work apparently as the Head of
State had turned very cold. He then told me that the Head of State was dead and
nothing could be done after all. I there and then asked the personal physician
to remain with the dead body while I dashed home to be fully prepared for the
problems that might arise from the incident. As soon as I informed my wife, she
collapsed and burst into tears. I secured my house and then ran back.
At that point, the Aide-de-Camp had
been contacted by me and we decided that great caution must be taken in
handling the grave situation. Again, I must reiterate that the issue of my boss
dying on top of women was a great lie just as the insinuation that General Sani
Abacha ate and died of poisoned apples was equally a wicked lie.
My question is: did Chief M.K.O
Abiola die of poisoned apples or did he die on top of women? As I had stated at
the Oputa Panel, their deaths were organised. Pure and simple! It was at this
point that I used our special communication gadgets to diplomatically invite
the Service Chiefs, Military Governors and some few elements purportedly to a
meeting with the Head of State by 9a.m. at the Council Chamber.
That completed, I also decided to
talk to some former leaders of the nation to inform them that General Sani
Abacha would like to meet them by 9a.m. Situation became charged however, when
one of the Service Chiefs, Lieutenant General Ishaya Rizi Bamaiyi, who
pretended to be with us, suggested he be made the new Head of State after we had
quietly informed him of the death of General Sani Abacha. He even suggested we
should allow him access to Chief Abiola. We smelt a rat and other heads of
security agencies, on hearing this, advised I move Chief Abiola to a safer
destination.”
“I managed to do this in spite of
the fact that I had been terribly overwhelmed with the crisis at hand. But
then, when some junior officers over-heard the suggestion of one of the Service
Chiefs earlier mentioned, it was suggested to me that we should finish all the
members of the Provisional Ruling Council and give the general public an excuse
that there was a meeting of the PRC during which a shoot-out occurred between
some members of the Provisional Ruling Council and the Body Guards to the Head
of State.
When I sensed that we would be
contending with far more delicate issues than the one on ground, I talked to
Generals Buba Marwa and Ibrahim Sabo who both promptly advised us – the junior
officers – against any bloodshed. They advised we contact General Ibrahim Babangida
(former Military President) who equally advised against any bloodshed but that
we should support the most senior officer in the Provisional Ruling Council
(PRC) to be the new Head of State.
Since the words of our elders are
words of wisdom, we agreed to support General Jeremiah Useni. Along the line,
General Bamaiyi lampooned me saying, “Can’t you put two and two together to be
four? Has it not occurred to you that General Useni who was the last man with
the Head of State might have poisoned him, knowing full well that he was the
most senior officer in the PRC?”
“Naturally, I became furious with
General Useni since General Abacha’s family had earlier on complained severally
about the closeness of the two Generals; at that, a decision was taken to storm
General Useni’s house with almost a battalion of soldiers to effect his arrest.
Again, some heads of security units and agencies, including my wife, advised
against the move. The next most senior person and officer in government was
General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who was then the Chief of Defence Staff. We
rejected the other Service Chief, who, we believed, was too ambitious and
destructive.
We settled for General Abubakar and
about six of us called him inside a room in the Head of State’s residence to break
the news of the death of General Abacha to him. As a General with vast
experience, Abdulsalami Abubakar, humbly requested to see and pray for the soul
of General Abacha which we allowed. Do we consider this a mistake? Because
right there, he – Abubakar – went and sat on the seat of the late Head of
State.
Again, I was very furious. Like I
said at the Oputa Panel, if caution was not applied, I would have gunned him
down. The revolution the boys were yearning for would have started right there.
The assumption that we could not have succeeded in the revolution was a blatant
lie. We were in full control of the State House and the Brigade of Guards. We
had loyal troops in Keffi and in some other areas surrounding the seat of
government – Abuja. But I allowed peace to reign because we believed it would
create further crises in the country.”
“We followed the advice of General
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and the wise counsel of some loyal senior officers
and jointly agreed that General Abdulsalami Abubakar be installed Head of
State, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces immediately after the
burial of General Sani Abacha in Kano. It is an irony of history that the same
Service Chief who wanted to be Head of State through bloodshed, later
instigated the new members of the Provisional Ruling Council against us and
branded us killers, termites and all sorts of hopeless names. They planned,
arranged our arrest, intimidation and subsequent jungle trial in 1998 and 1999.
These, of course, led to our terrible condition in several prisons and places
of confinement.”
