A retired Colonel of the Nigerian Army, Babatunde Bello-Fadile, says the late General Sani Abacha would not have taken over power from the interim government of late Ernest Sonekan if he, Bello was allowed to resume as the Aide-De-Camp, ADC, of the interim president.
Bello-Fadile stated this on the Friday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme on Channels Television.
“I was posted 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. 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,” he said.
Media Talk Africa recalls that in 1993, after a controversial annulment of an election whose winner was adjudged to be the late MKO Abiola, General Ibrahim Babangida, IBB, took over power in 1985.
IBB, who took over power through a coup against General Muhammadu Buhari, resigned and formed an interim government with Sonekan as president and Abacha as Chief of Defence Staff and Minister of Defence.
On November 18, 1993, three months into his administration, Abacha overthrew Sonekan in a palace coup.
Over 30 years later, Bello-Fadile said the circumstances behind Sonekan’s resignation were abnormal.
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