One of the officers who participated in the arrest of then Head of State, and current President, Muhammadu Buhari, during a military coup on August 27, 1985, Abdulmumini Aminu, once stated that contrary to claims, he and his colleagues never handcuffed Mr. Buhari upon arrest.
Mr. Aminu, a retired Colonel of the Nigerian Army, also said in an interview with Daily Trust that contrary to believe, he was the one who led a team of three Army officers to arrest Buhari.
There are speculation that Mr. Buhari was arrested by the Immediate past National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, during the coup that saw the emergence of Ibrahim Babangida as military president.
“I must confess that I led that operation. I went to Dodan Barracks that time in company of two other officers – then Major John Madaki and Lawan Gwadabe. Three of us went, but specifically I was the one that went upstairs to bring Buhari,” Mr. Aminu said.
The retired colonel, who was also a one- time military administrator of Borno state, denied mistreatingMr. Buhari while arresting him.
He said he had and still has deep respect for Mr. Buhari and that he still remain an admirer of the President and could not therefore have shown him any disrespect.
“With due respect, I have been reading in the papers and listening to radio, people saying that we manhandled him, we disrespected him. That was not true. I and General Buhari are the only two who knew what transpired upstairs and there was nothing like that.
“We gave him his absolute respect as a superior, because even before that time, we had absolute respect for him, because of whom and what he was. We respect him a lot till today and there is no animosity between us and he knew it was a military assignment that we were carrying out from our superior. He even told me at one time.
“So for us, it is just like the other way round of when he came to power during the anti-Shagari coup. I was among those who played a major role in getting him to power. So, he knew the role I played. And even Buhari knew in 2003, I was arrested because of him. That time, I supported him. I worked for him at that time, without even him knowing anyway, but he later knew. You see, once you believe in somebody and you know he has the capability, you can do anything for him without even him knowing,” he said.
Mr. Aminu said it was a “blatant lie” reports that Mr. Buhari was handcuffed.
“It is a blatant lie. In an operation of that nature, we don’t carry handcuffs,” he said
He however, admitted that he did not salute the then Head of State at the time because the flag had been lowered.
“I did not salute him because according to military tradition and norms when the flag is lowered, you can only pay compliments the way you deem fit, not salutation.
“We met at 2 a.m. and at that time, we don’t salute because the flag is down, until 6 am again when the flag is up. To insinuate that he was handcuffed, that is far from the truth. We only accorded him all the respects he deserved. I still hold him in very high esteem,” he said.
The ex-military administrator also gave insight into the ongoing insurgency in the north east which began in Borno state where he was a Military Governor.
He blamed authorities for not tackling the incident at its preliminary stage and allowed it to fester, hence the difficualty in arresting the situation.
Mr. Aminu recalled that while he was governor in old Borno (comprising Borno and Yobe States) there was a security challenge caused by the proliferation of arms and ammunitions from the political uphealvals in nearby Chad Republic.
He said he brought together all security agencies in the state and adopted what he called an “unorthodox method” of dealing with the situation.
He said plain cloth security men use buses to infiltrate criminal gangs.
“I ordered the purchase of two buses used by security personnel in civil dress and unarmed. That was how we were able to check the insecurity.
“They would think that they were ordinary people and we arrested many of them, sometimes we killed some. And from there, we had a lot of information until we checked the criminals and that was how we eliminated them right from the beginning,” he said…..Seê _ Morê
Leave a Reply