Kudirat Abiola and 9 other patriots who lost their lives to June 12
In the first six months of its formation, the Justice Chukwudife Oputa’s panel, setup in June 1999 by ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate cases of human right abuses and crimes under the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, had received 10,000 petitions. Although only 150 were heard.
Of all the cases, the most bizarre crimes appeared to have been committed under Abacha’s regime who ruled from 1993 before dying in 1998. Many of those killed during this period were pro-democracy campaigners, journalists and politicians who were actively involved in the call for the release and declaration of MKO Abiola as winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election nullified by Babangida on June 23, 1993.
Here are 10 patriots who lost their lives to June 12:
1. Kudirat Abiola:
Abiola’s most political wife who actively participated in protests and called for her husband’s release. When her activism voice was becoming too loud for the military dictator, they silenced her by assassination on June 4, 1996.
Her case was one of the most bizarre cases heard by the Oputa Panel. It was uncovered that Abacha’s chief security officer Major Hamza Al-Mustapha in connivance with Lateef Shofolahan, Kudirat’s protocol officer, Sergeant Rogers, Abacha’s son, Mohammed Abacha, planned the assassination.
2. Alfred Rewane
A renowned economist, pro-democracy activist and financier of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), a coalition of pro-democracy campaigners and opposition figures who constantly criticised the Abacha regime.
While many NADECO leaders fled the country after the IGP Ibrahim Coomasie declared the group illegal in May 1994, signaling government’s readiness to clampdown on its members, Rewane remained in Nigeria. On October 6, 1995, Rewane, who was highly critical of Abacha’s military rule, was murdered in his bedroom at his residence in GRA Ikeja, Lagos.
3. Shehu Musa Yar’adua
A retired general and ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s second in command when he was the military head of state from 1976 to 1979. He was a chieftain of Abiola’s Social Democratic Party (SDP).
In January 1996, he called on the Abacha government to hand over power to democratically elected president, four months after, he was arrested over allegations that he was involved in the alleged 1995 coup. He was sentenced to death by a military tribunal in 1995. Although his sentence was commuted to life in prison, he died in captivity on December 8, 1997. The Guardian of Thursday, December 11, 1997 reported that he had slumped twice on Sunday December 7 and 8, 1997 before he was rushed to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu around 4.30pm on December 8 where he died.
In 2017, Obasanjo claimed Yar’Adua was poisoned by Abacha.
4. Rear Admiral Babatunde Elegbede
A former Military Governor of Cross River State from 1978 to 1979, and Chief of Defence Intelligence Agency from 1989 to 1990. He was a member of Babangida’s Armed Forces Ruling Council from 1983 to 1993.
On June 19, 1994, Elegbede became one of the victims of the many killings under the icy and unforgiving regime of Abacha, when he was shot dead by gunmen along the Gbagada/Oworonshoki expressway in Lagos.
5. Alhaja Suliat Adedeji
Suliat Adedeji was a prominent Ibadan politician who was assassinated on November 14, 1996 in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Sources say a prominent Ibadan politician (who is now late) who felt threatened by Adedeji’s rising political influence sold her out to Abacha, Suliat was also said to be a longtime friend of the Abacha family. As a nurse she had been friends with the family when Abacha was GOC in Ibadan.
According to Seyi Oduyela’s account in ‘Owners of Nigeria VII’, Adedeji had privileged information about Abacha’s health and as an opposition figure there were fears she could let out the information.
6. Rear Admiral Victor Omotehinwa
Omotehinwa was assassinated in May 1996 by gunmen. While testifying before Oputa Panel, his widow claimed their son saw three men who shot him at their home in Lagos.
He was believed to have been killed because of his affiliation with the most senior former military officer in the exiled leadership of a pro-democracy organization NADECO.
7. Sola Omatsola
A bomb explosion at Lagos airport reported to be aimed at Abacha’s second-in-command, Oladipo Diya, killed Omatsola on December 13, 1997. He was the Chief Security Officer of Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
The bomb was timed to explode during the delayed flight that Diya was to take. Diya himself was detained ten days later on allegations of involvement in a coup plot.
8. Toyin Onagoruwa
Toyin Onagoruwa was the son of Abacha’s Minister of Justice, Olu Onagoruwa. He was assassinated over the confrontation his father had with the government. In September 1994, when Abacha’s regime rolled out eight new decrees with ouster clauses. Onagoruwa addressed a press conference to disown the decrees, which he said would “sweep away our liberties”. He also threatened to resign and was sacked a week after, on September 12, 1994. From then he became an enemy of the state.
On December 18, 1996, Toyin, who had a PhD in law and a staff of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was gunned down in front of his house in Yaba, Lagos. Onagoruwa told the Oputa Panel in 2000 that Abacha’s security operatives, Barnabas Mshelia (aka Sgt. Rogers) and Frank Omenka of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), killed his son. He also accused the IGP Ibrahim Coomassie and Brigadier Laide Laoye of having a hand in Toyin’s death. He claimed Laoye’s white Mercedes Benz with registration number BB844, SMK was the car used by the assassins.
9. James Bagauda Kaltho
Kaltho was the Kaduna correspondent of The News magazine before he was kidnapped and murdered by the military. His disappearance was linked to his article published in The News Magazine in 1995 over an alleged coup in March 1995. In 1998, an Assistant Police Commissioner Zakari Biu, had claimed Kaltho died in 1996 while trying to plant a bomb at Durbar Hotel in Kaduna.
A few days after he was sworn-in as Lagos state governor, Bola Tinubu, on May 31, 1999, renamed the Ibrahim Sani Abacha Press Centre located at the state’s secretariat Alausa, Ikeja as Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre. The press centre was named after Abacha’s late son by Brig. General Buba Marwa, the former administrator of Lagos.
10. Tunde Oladepo
Oladepo was a 34-year-old senior correspondent with The Guardian newspaper shot dead in the presence of his family in Abeokuta, Ogun State on February 26, 1998 after some armed men suspected to be the usual ‘state killer squad’ broke into his home.
The circumstances surrounding his death made Nigerians point accusing fingers at the government. Shortly before he was murdered, Oladepo was said to have written a story criticizing traditional rulers, including the chief of the local area, for endorsing Abacha for president.
