Dipo Kehinde/
As President Muhammadu Buhari reflected today on patriotic Nigerians making sacrifices for the nation, NewsmakersNG recalls the heroic stand of notable citizens who fought at the risk of their lives to save Nigeria and uphold democracy in the dark days of the late Gen Sani Abacha.
In a private discussion during a National Day celebration years back, a Lagos State commissioner of police (CP), Young Arebamen, told this reporter how he was frustrated by authorities after a failed attempt by the government to kill Gen Ipoola Alani Akinrinade with plastic Bottle Bomb at his home in Opebi Estate.
A civil-war hero, Gen Akinrinade who had retired then, had served Nigeria as Chief of Army Staff (COAS), from October 1979 to April 1980, and then Chief of Defence Staff until 1981 during the Nigerian Second Republic.
Arebamen, who died recently, was at that time Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the Area “F” command headquarters, Ikeja, Lagos.
He told how he was summoned to the State Command headquarters by his boss, CP James Danbaba, who tongue-lashed him after his men intercepted bottle bombs in a car in Ikeja and made it public.
Arebamen said that Danbaba who ended up as the longest-serving CP in Lagos (4 years) asked him if it was his job to be intercepting and impounding vehicles with bottle bombs. He was thereafter kicked out as the Area Commander.
At the time, the Nigerian government under Abacha was after the lives of prominent patriots committed to the enthronement of democracy after the military annulled the June 12, 1993, Presidential election won by the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.
Several people were either shot or killed with explosive devices at the time. On November 14, 1996, a car bomb explosion at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport killed three persons including the Chief Security Officer of the Federal Airport Authority (FAA), Dr Shola Omasola.
Chief Alex Ibru, the publisher of The Guardian titles and Abacha’s first Minister of Internal Affairs was shot and wounded by gunmen suspected to be hired assassins earlier on February 2, 1996. That was followed, on June 4, by the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola, the senior wife to the president-elect and a fierce fighter for the validation of the mandate. She was shot to death inside her car in Lagos.
According to Arebamen, Danbaba set the suspects and the impounded vehicle free. Later, on that day, there was a bomb attack at the residence of Gen Akinrinade.
Arebamen said that when his men raced to the scene, they found particles of the same bottle bombs impounded earlier in the day.
It was a phase in the history of Nigeria. Danbaba later spent years in prison for his roles in Abacha’s government. He died shortly after his release in 2017.
Arebamen became the Lagos State CP after the restoration of democratic rule.
Gen. Akinrinade will be 80 years on October 3.
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