June 8, 2026
In the long struggles against military misrule and for democracy, we lost far more Nigerians under the Babangida dictatorship than under the Abacha regime. However, the fight against Abacha and his bandits was far more taxing. In the case of the former, hundreds were murdered but only a handful of Nigerians were detained at any given time. There were also the periodic mass executions of soldiers, such as the ten who faced the firing squad on March 5, 1986 over the Vatsa coup and the 69 executed in 1990 over the Orkar coup.
In contrast, the Abacha regime assassinated select persons like Mrs. Kudirat Abiola in the streets or in their homes, bombed buses-especially those conveying soldiers-and detained or jailed many people. On average annually, between 1995 and 1998, we in the pro-democracy movement adopted a minimum of 100 political prisoners. These included retired Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Shehu Yar’Adua, who was eventually murdered in Abakaliki Prison on December 8, 1997.
We also adopted politicians like Abubakar Rimi, Olu Falae, Sule Lamido, Olabiyi Durojaiye, Bola Ige and Lam Adesina. Equally adopted were soldiers like Colonels Lawan Gwadabe and R.S.B. Bello-Fadile. We were quite interested in the latter not just because it was around him the Abacha terrorists built the phantom coup, but also because many lives were tied to him. These included Commodore L.M.O. Fabiyi, who was jailed for trying to defend Fadile diligently, and Ms. Rebecca Ikpe, Fadile’s sister-in-law. She was jailed and sent to solitary confinement in July 1995 for allegedly leaking his defence statement.
