How would you react to the death sentence passed on Maj.Hamza Mustapha by the court?
Honestly, this whole thing is making me remember a lot and it is making me sad. Many of our love ones have been wasted in this country and yet we have not changed as a nation. The death of Kudirat Abiola reminds me of what I passed through when I was shot February 3, 1994.We were not surprised because at that time, you will recall the Abacha period, many people were being killed and some of us were lucky that we survived.So a day before she was killed,she called me just as the husband also spoke to me a night before he was arrested. I am very close to them and I know how committed she was to the June 12, and the actualization ofher husband'smandate but unfortunately,Nigeria was not prepared to fight for democracy and that was how she died. It remains one of the many sore issues in this country which we never
really appreciated.To me, just as I felt it when she was killed, so also I felt when the husband died because the death of her husband was really possible because of the annulment of June 12. Their death was only possible because of the death of June 12. So when I left this country, I left with only one suitcase and all I had in it was about three shirts and two trousers. I wept when she died.And when one started reading about Mustapha and so on, and how it dragged on for too long, it is sad.If you read some of my writings,you will read when Gen.Useni asked me to go and meet Mustapha, and that Mustapha will take me to Abacha. I spent three nights in Lagos. He spoketo me but I could not see Abacha.I came to Benin and of course, I met my waterloo in Benin . I was shot. And I ask somebody to go to the police stations in Benin City and find out how far about my incident. He said yes the police knew about it but they have removed all the files that have to do with my case. And yet, the Commissioner of Police came
with Ogbemudia to see me in the hospital.And the man said Prof., don't you know that they after you? But before then, they have served us a notice that they will close my mouth if I won't stop talking. So when I remember February 3, 1994 when I was shot and I am still carrying eight pellets in my lower hip today, I don't have to be reminded that I could also have died. When you read one article titled "When Violence Buffets a Nation", you will see my name on the list ofthose who survived the Abacha era. You will also see the list of those who were killed. I am still carrying eight pellets in my lower hip.So one went through all these,then now came another one called cancer. Asa matter of fact,it was after Rewane's death that Baba Enahoro fled. He left because he knew they were going to go after him. I left the country immediately I came back from London . I managed to come to UNIBEN to enable me seek for a place in America. They said I opened my big mouth then and Abacha'speople went to attack
UNIBEN authority.Then, why did they allow me to flee the country?The VC then told them that I went on leave. So due to the pressure, he decided to cancel my leave and said that I should pack out of the office within 24 hours but I was already in the United States. My lawyer Barr.Omonuwa has to go, change the door, the keys, took out my books and gave the book to the University of Benin.Up till date,UNIBEN has not acknowledged that library which I gave to them.And then the Minister of Education, my friend Prof.Tunde Adeniran was the one who reinstated me in UNIBEN because before then, my file had disappeared from the university.Prof.Adeniran now came and said no, it will be wrong not to reinstate me after I served the school for years. That was how they reinstated me and granted me my leave and my pension.When one looked at all that and you look at the long list of those who died, then you begin to wonder, nothing has changed as far I am concerned in this country. And Kudi's children are about six or seven and
with the help of the international community, we took them to the US . The eldest of them Hamzat worked so hard to raise the siblings..........to be cont'd.
Just click on the part 2...
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