23:16
Twenty-three years after a military plane crash in
which more than 159 officers lost their lives in Ejirin
swamp in Lagos in 1992, then military ruler, General
Ibrahim Badamosi Bab@ngida (IBB) has finally
spoken on the ill-fated incident.
Bab@ngida, in an exclusive chat in the maiden edition
of The Interview, disclosed that the crashed aircraft
ought not to have flown on that specific day, based
on the issue of maintenance and number of flying
hours already attained. Responding to a question
posed by The Interview on what actually transpired on
that day and if the crash was properly investigated,
the 73-year-old former president said: “It was
investigated. It was reported. But you guys had a
mindset. Certain people had a mindset; nobody was
interested in the report. But it was investigated. What
happened in sum total was that the aircraft should
not have been flying. There are mandatory stages,
number of hours and maintenance. All those things
that are mandatory were not there.” When he was
asked on what happened to the people who
authorised the plane to fly on that ill-fated day,
Bab@ngida said there was no penalty meted out,
adding: “They ought to have been punished. I know
that blame was apportioned. I wouldn’t know about
the punishment. We investigated; we even
apportioned blame but no penalty.” On why that was
so, he simply remarked, “That is the Nigerian factor.”
Responding to inquiries on who killed renowned
journalist, Dele Giwa who died from a parcel bomb
blast, Bab@ngida said, “A Bomb”.
When asked in the interview on who sent the bomb,
he replied:
“Would you ever think somebody could sit and ask a
soldier or anybody, go and kill that man?”
Upon the interviewer’s response that “It depends....”,
IBB was quoted to have replied:
“It depends on who? If what you hear about other
African leaders is anything to go by, you are right to
believe that it could happen because of what
happened in the case of the Mobutus of this world.
But there is also one human being who believes in
God, who believes you cannot take away life, who
believes that God forbids you to do that, who believes
that God created you equally. Somebody of that
nature cannot, in all fairness order the execution or
killing of another person.”
When he was pressed on his relationship with late
Dele Giwa, Bab@ngida replied:
“We were friends. Very soon, somebody is going to
accuse me of saying he is my friend. I knew him very
closely. I have correspondence between him and me.
But that is not enough for you to believe that we were
friends. What is enough is that I took a bomb and
killed him.”
When The Interview countered that “There was a
general feeling that he knew a lot of military guys and
knew more than he was supposed to know....”, IBB
cut in...…
”That he knew we were dealing in drugs and Gloria
Okon. Somebody should have come out with it by
now. He must have left some manuscripts.”
When he was asked if he suppressed the
investigation, the former president replied,
“There was a report on that investigation if you may
be interested to know.”
On the interviewer’s remark that witnesses in the
investigation were apparently hidden, Bab@ngida
replied,
“No. Most of what you guys talked about was fict!
tious. Even one of the persons you guys said was
involved does not seem to exist. Gloria Okon; she
does not seem to be in existence.
And then you came out with, what is the name of the
other girl who was supposed to be my wife’s friend?
She was in prison or something; you came out with
that one. There is virtually no truth in it all. People are
not very good in putting stories together to make it
look credible. They only make it look fantastic.
If you are dealing with an idiot, of course you can do
anything. But you deal with a man who thinks, a man
who tries to rationalise”.
On Saturday, September 26, 1992, a Nigerian Air
Force Hercules C-130 (NAF 911) transport plane,
carrying more than 200 persons, took off at 5:27 pm
from the Runway 19 of the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, Lagos, with its destination the
city of Kaduna in northern Nigeria.
However, a few minutes after take-off, the heavy-
laden plane, which was said to be carrying not just
the military boys and girls but young students of the
Nigerian Military School (NMS), Zaria, alongside
civilians, relations and friends of military officers,
developed a fault and nose-dived into the deep
swamp not too far from the Lagos State Low Cost
Housing Estate, Ejigbo to the Festac Town, Lagos,
killing all those onboard.
In the crash officers of the 19, 20, 21 and 22 Regular
Courses of the Nigerian Defence Academy were badly
hit. A list of 159 names of those officially listed as
passengers of the C-130H was released on October 1
by the Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Fred
Chijuka.
The list was made up of seven Lieutenant Colonels,
96 Majors, a Sergeant, Michael Bahago, two students
– Mr. O B Oshodi, Mrs. M A Abu, and a reporter, Mr.
Augustine Okpe. There were also the eight-officer
crew including Alaboson, Mamadi, Squadron Leader J
A Adeiza and Flight Lieutenant S O Adamu. The other
men, Alum Wakala, Tarfa Saidu, W T Datong and A
Soyemi in addition to 19 Air Force officers, were made
up of 18 Squadron Leaders and a Sergeant, O. Jaja.
The Nigerian Navy lost 16 Lieutenant Commanders,
Ghanaian Armed Forces, five; Tanzania lost Major M
S Mgonja while Ugandan Major J R Mulazi also lost
his life in the crash.
The Nigerian Army Education Corps lost a total of 19
officers, Infantry 17, Artillery 15, Intelligence nine,
Signals nine, Supply and Transport eight, Military
Police seven while the Electrical and Mechanical
Armoured and Medical Corps lost four officers each.
Others included Ordinance three while Finance and
Personnel and Training lost two men each.
Sunday, 6 December 2015
IBB Opens Up On Dele Giwa 's Death & 159 Officers On Crashed Plane
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