Oladipo Diya: Abacha’s deputy who survived assassination attempt and death sentence, dies at 78
Oladipo Diya, a former Chief of the General Staff in the Nigerian Army, a position that made him military vice president to Sani Abacha from November 1993 to December 1997, died on Sunday, March 26, 2023. He was 78.
Oyesinmilola Diya, a spokesperson for the family, announced the death in a statement on Sunday morning.
Oyesimisola did not specify the cause of Diya’s death.
“Our dear Daddy passed onto glory in the early hours of 26th March 2023.” the family statement read.
“Please keep us in your prayers as we mourn his demise in this period. Further announcements will be made public in due course.”
Diya, who was born April 3, 1944, was sentenced to death over alleged coup plot but survived.
In December 1997, Diya was arrested along with 11 others, including two major generals – Tajudeen Olarenwaju and Abdulkareem Adisa –who were Ministers of Communications and Public Works respectively in the Abacha regime.
The Abacha regime arrested the soldiers who were mostly Yorubas for allegedly planning to overthrow his government through a coup plot.
Diya and other Soldiers were sentenced to death in April 1998. While they were in detention, Abacha died in June 1998. Diya and other convicted soldiers were pardoned and released by the military regime of Abdulsalam Abubakar.
Two weeks before his arrest in 1997, Diya had narrowly escaped being the victim of a bomb explosion at Abuja Airport when he was on his way to represent Abacha at an event in Makurdi, Benue state.
“I wanted to travel to Makurdi and a bomb planted was to be put in my plane and to explode 10 minutes after take-off, but by dint of fortune, I was late by 10 minutes and that 10 minutes actually saved my life and still made me to be alive till today. Because those people that were assigned to plant the bomb were trying to re-time the bomb because I was already 10 minutes late, then the bomb exploded on them,” Diya said in an interview with Thisday newspaper in 2014.
Diya, a trained lawyer, was military governor of Ogun state from January 1984 to August 1985.
