Fadile: Abacha Wouldn’t Have Taken Over If I Was Allowed to Resume as Sonekan’s ADC

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

A retired colonel of the Nigerian Army, Babatunde Bello-Fadile, went back memory lane, stating that late General Sani Abacha wouldn’t have wrested power from the interim government of late businessman Ernest Sonekan if he was allowed to resume as the aide-de-camp (ADC) of the interim president.

Over 30 years later, Bello-Fadile believes that the circumstances behind Sonekan’s resignation were abnormal.

On November 18, 1993, three months into his administration, Abacha overthrew Sonekan in a palace coup.

He further said, “I was posted ADC 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,”

Bello-Fadile, who spoke yesterday, on a programme monitored on Channels Television, explained: “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.”

In 1993, after a controversial annulment of an election whose winner was adjudged to be the late MKO Abiola, General Ibrahim Babangida who took over power in 1985 through a coup against General Muhammadu Buhari resigned and formed an interim government with businessman Sonekan as president and Abacha as Chief of Defence Staff and Minister of Defence.

The lawyer and former head of the Legal Unit of the Nigerian Army, Fadile  also took a trip down memory lane and narrated how he confronted Abacha after he took over power from Sonekan.

According to Fadile, “The military decided to leave after June 12 and an interim government was set up and it was agreed that we would midwife and elected government.

“The civilians that were elected were allowed to stay but my friend (Abacha) decided to say no.

“The second in command to Sonekan (Abacha) organised a resignation and threw away the agreement that the military had had enough, and should set a path for democratic government.

“Like-minded persons in the military said that can’t happen. Then Abacha said these are IBB boys behind the insistence for a return to democracy. And all of a sudden, he announced their retirement.

“I was still in the military at the time and he retired all my friends, 17 of them. I don’t know how I survived that.

“Then he (Abacha) set up panels to review everything. Kayode Esho panel (of which I was a member) to review the judiciary. I was the only military person there, all the others were judges and lawyers. Then, they set up the police reform and called for a White Paper just to buy time.

“When we submitted the White Paper Committee Report, he asked me what we were hearing, and I told him that the people wanted the military to return to the barracks.”