1983 COUP: How Buhari Dealt With Southern, Christian Politicians – Akande Explains In Autobiography

Former Osun State Governor and Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Bisi Akande, has accused the General Muhammadu Buhari-led military regime of employing double standards in treatment of political detainees after the December 31, 1983 military coup.

According to him, Southern and Christian political leaders got a raw deal compared to their Northern and Muslim counterparts during the regime’s onslaught against politicians in 1984 in the guise of fighting graft.

Writing in “My participations,” his 557-page autobiography, which was launched last week, Chief Akande, who recalled his ordeals in various detention centres from Ibadan to Bonny Camp and Kirikiri Prison, said the maltreatment of detained southern and Christian political leaders was palpable.

For instance, of the 19 states of the country at the time, only the deputy governors of Oyo State were tried and while Vice President Alex Ekwueme was hauled into prison, President Shehu Shagari was detained at a comfortable Federal Government Guest House in Ikoyi

His words: “The roll call at Bonny Camp was who-was-who in the defunct Second Republic. There I met former governors Ige of Oyo, Adekunle Ajasin of Ondo, Bisi Onabanjo of Ogun, Ambrose Alli of Bendel, Lateef Jakande of Lagos, Adamu Ata of Kwara, Jim Nwobodo of Anambra, Sam Mbakwe of Imo, Melford Okilo of Rivers and Clement Isong of Cross River.

“Also with us at Bonny Camp were S.M. Afolabi, my predecessor as deputy governor who served briefly as President Shagari’s minister of Education and Chief Ogedengbe, another former minister from Ondo State.

“I felt strangely discriminated against among them all because I did not meet any other deputy governor apart from Chief Afolabi.

“In 1984, there were 19 states in Nigeria, 10 from the North and nine from the South. I ruminated and asked myself: ‘Why has Oyo State been singled out for maltreatment of deputy governors?’ I concluded that the ways of the military had no rhyme or reason…

“One day, former Vice President Alex Ekwueme joined us in Kirikiri. He appeared visibly perplexed, shaken with emotion and he wept bitterly as he was shoved into his cell on our floor.

“Unlike the Vice President, President Shagari was being detained in a luxurious Federal Government Guest House in Ikoyi.

“There was a sudden pall of gloom everywhere. Many of us felt sad and agitated about the humiliation being meted out to the vice president.

“Thereafter, pockets of corridor talks began among the inmates. The theme, all over, was that there were double standards in the arrests and humiliation of politicians from the South and the North, between Christians and Muslims with the southerners, and Christians suffering the worse treatment.”

Akande who lamented how his incarceration affected his relations with his children and recognition of places as he kept missing directions to his house in Lagos and other places, said his wife, Omowumi, almost died in an accident upon hearing his conviction by the military tribunal on radio.

“On 16th October, 1984, Chief Bola Ige and I were found guilty on a two-count charge of conspiracy, and unlawful enrichment of our political party –the UPN, by the Ibadan Special Military Tribunal.

“The tribunal sentenced each of us to 21 years imprisonment on each count to run concurrently.

“The immediate import of that judgement to me was that I was being jailed for 42 years. And that was the media headlines too.

“The scenario exactly resembled what I saw in my vision on that cool Saturday at my Onireke official quarters in 1981.

Along with Chief Bola Ige, I was truly and finally driven to prison in a police Black Maria vehicle that day.

“That day, my wife heard the news from her car radio while driving home from work. Our trial was secret; so, family members and friends were not allowed to attend.

“Like anyone else, my wife heard the news over the radio. She unconsciously drove into the boot of the car in front of her. But today, we thank God for everything.”

Akande, apart from his comment that Afenifere Elder, Chief Ayo Adebanjo pestered former Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos to build a house for him, said that Adebanjo’s inability to differentiate Afenifere from the Alliance for Democracy, AD harmed Afenifere, the apex Yoruba socio-economic organization.

He wrote: “Shortly after the Kaduna meeting, Ambassador Tanko Yusuf resigned from the chairmanship and membership of the Alliance for Democracy.

“Chief Ayo Adebanjo, the erstwhile Deputy Chairman of the party, became the Acting National Chairman. Since then, it became difficult to decipher the difference between the running of Afenifere and the management of the Alliance for Democracy.

“Since then, the schism that dwarfed Afenifere as the organization at the apex of Yoruba organisations, began.”

Meanwhile, Leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-economic group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has lambasted Chief Akande, over allegations levelled against him in his book, ‘My Participation’.

Akande in one of the accounts in the book, Akande claimed that Adebanjo pestered Bola Tinubu to build a house for him.

However, Adebanjo in an interview on Arise Television, yesterday, denied the allegations.

He claimed that Akande was lying and selling Yoruba race in a bid to ensure Tinubu emerges as president in 2023.

Adebanjo said: “He (Bisi Akande) is too junior to me to be commenting on political matters. He is a political neophyte. He is already known to me as a pathological liar.

“His colleague, Akinfenwa, in his book, said that is who he is. And those of us who know him also know. He is just an apron string of Tinubu.

“He is too junior for me to be commenting on what he said. I signed his papers to be governor.

“And the condition we gave for him to become governor was that of sovereign national conference for the restructuring of the country back to federalism. That was the condition he was elected in 1999 and he reneged on that.

“We call all of them – Bola Tinubu, Segun Osoba to warn them when they reneged. They have sold out the Yoruba race to Muhammadu Buhari all because they want Tinubu to be president. That is not my business.

“But telling lies is the one I don’t know and I don’t know how a man like Akande who claims that we all come from the root of Obafemi Awolowo can be taking pride in his participation in the government of Buhari, who they know is a disaster when all those who supported him initially are now regretting that they supported him.

“There is no sensible man who will come out now and say he is proud of Buhari. It shows the type of character he is. So, he is too junior for me to be commenting on what he said.”

On allegation that he pestered Tinubu to build his Lekki house, Adebanjo said he won’t join issues with Akande, who he accused of playing cheap politics.

Adebanjo, who promised to give a comprehensive response to Akande’s allegation, said: “I don’t want to be part of the politics he’s trying to play.

“I will address the media soon and provide pictures and give details of the number of houses I sold before I built my Lekki house. I will show you the photographs of the contractors who worked in the house.”

Meanwhile, Adebanjo agreed with Akande that former President Olusegun Obasanjo has questions to answer over the failure to unravel the assassination of former Oyo State Governor, Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige.

According to Adebanjo, Obasanjo has “a lot of questions to answer over the death of Bola Ige,” adding that “a lot of questionable deaths happened during the regime of Obasanjo.”

“There’s no doubt that Obasanjo’s government cannot claim innocence about the death of Bola Ige.

“Nobody is disputing that, and as far as we are concerned, he has a lot of questions to answer.

“Because I don’t understand how the chief legal officer of the state with security people guiding him every time, will have security leave him as at the time the assassins came, claiming they went to eat,” the Afenifere leader said.

“To be candid, a lot of questionable deaths happened during the regime of Obasanjo. On that score, I think there’s a point for Obasanjo’s government to answer.”