BACKSTORY TO THE KILLING
In May 1996, the month before Kudirat Abiola was mercilessly gunned down, she had been briefly detained for a few hours for allegedly possessing publications critical of the Nigerian military government headed by General Sani Abacha. Although her husband and billionaire businessman, Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, was already jailed over charges of treason, Kudirat became the tireless advocate for his freedom and return of his mandate. The beautiful woman soon became one of the most dreaded foes of Abacha.
THE DAY
On a Tuesday, 4th of June, 1996, around 3:05 pm one of the most senseless murders in Nigeria was carried out. A sparkling white Mercedes Benz was cruising along the streets of Lagos. As the car slowed down around 7-Up Depot/Bus Stop in Ikeja, they were attacked by six men who suddenly opened fire on the German machine: Mrs. Abiola, her assistant (who had just been released by the police) and chauffeur were in the car.
Her car.
-After the assassination of Kudirat Abiola at the age of 44, his government announced a $45,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of her killers. Abacha blamed terrorism and the increasing crime rate in the country for her assassination.
Mrs. Abiola was with her assistant and driver on the streets of Lagos, while in her white Mercedes Benz, they were attacked by six (some say three) men in a vehicle driven by Mohamed Abdulof, who rained bullets on them with a Belgium-made FN P90 submachine gun/compact assault rifle which is quite unconventional.
Her driver was shot and he died while her personal assistant, Michael Adesina, was unhurt. She died from gunshot injuries to the forehead. She was rushed to the Eko Hospital after the attack. Before the killing, Kudirat Abiola had complained of threats to her life and that she was being trailed by unknown men. In May 1996, a month to her killing, she was arrested and detained briefly for possessing publications that were deemed critical of the Abacha junta.
THE WEAPON USED IN KILLING KUDIRAT
The F-90, submachine gun/compact assault rifle used was used in killing Kudirat Abiola.
Named for 1990, the year it was made by FN Herstal, the weapon is ideal for vehicle crews, support personnel, special forces and counterterrorist teams. Weighing 2.6 kg and just 50.5 cm long, it is in use by the US Secret Service and its standard variant is not available to civilians. It has an integrated reflector sight system, back-up iron sights, fully ambidextrous control meaning it can be easily used by right or left-handed shooters and can fire 900 rounds per minute to a maximum distance of 1,800m.
Picture
shows a disassembled PS90 (The standard P90 disassembles into similar
main components), showing the major component groups: 1. trigger group,
2. barrel and optical sight assembly, 3. butt plate, 4. magazine, 5.
bolt carrier and recoil assembly, 6. stock body and trigger. The firearm
was indeed designed to kill: The P90 was designed to have a length no
greater than a man’s shoulder width, to allow it to be easily carried
and maneuvered in tight spaces, such as the inside of an armored
vehicle. The weapon overall has an extremely compact profile—it is the
most compact fixed-stock submachine gun to be made. The P90 requires
minimal maintenance, and it can be disassembled quickly and easily. The
P90 utilizes the small-caliber, high-velocity 5.7×28mm cartridge. The
P90 can be fitted with a sling for greater ease of carry, and since the
weapon has a fixed stock (as opposed to having a collapsing or folding
stock), it can be quickly deployed when needed. It is in use in 40
countries of the world including Nigeria where it is employed by the
State Security Service (SSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
The
matte black PS90 USG model; the PS90 is a semi-automatic carbine
developed for civilian shooters for personal protection and sporting use.
P90
TR (Triple Rail) model, which features a Picatinny rail system for
mounting accessories, equipped with an Aimpoint red dot sight.
The P90’s unique magazine has a capacity of 50 rounds, and it fits flush with the weapon’s frame.
The P90 magazine feed lips
Three
of the small-caliber, high-velocity 5.7×28mm cartridges as used in the
P90. The left cartridge has a plain hollow tip, the center cartridge has
a red plastic V-max tip, and the right cartridge has a blue plastic
V-max tip.
BUILDUP TO THE ASSASSINATION AND AFTERMATH
Sergeant Rogers (Barnabas Jabila) later confessed that the ‘contract’ to snuff life out of Kudirat was given by the Chief Security Officer to General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza al-Mustapha, to Rabo Lawal, who was in charge of the mobile police (MOPOL) force at the presidential villa. Rogers also said the killer team was then provided with Uzi rifles complete with silencer and cash for the operation, all in the presence of Mohammed Abacha, son of the head of state. He claimed to have had direct involvement in the assassination with Lawal. Rogers said he was sent to kill three times but succeeded only with Kudirat Abiola failing with NADECO chieftain Abraham Adesanya and Alex Ibru.
In order to penetrate the security network of the Abiolas, the killer squad went via Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan, Alhaja Kudirat’s personal assistant. There were two attempts to assassinate Kudirat, the first attempt was planned to take place right inside the residence of MKO Abiola but when the assailants discovered that would be too dangerous, they abandoned the plan only for them to continue their surveillance of their primary target, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.
After the gunmen successfully got their target killed, each member of the killer team was reportedly given the sum of N50,000 ($250) by Major Al-Mustapha for a job well done. The announcement of Kudirat’s killing was made by Mudashiru, a brother to MKO Abiola, he said the very afternoon she was shot:
Following the killing of Alhaja Kudirat, the Nigerian junta headed by General Sani Abacha. His government offered the sum of $45,000 as reward for information leading to the arrest of those who killed Kudirat. Abacha’s government placed the blame of Kudirat’s killing on the increasing spiral of violence and terrorism in the country. Before the assassination, Mrs. Kudirat had been complaining that there were threats to her life, that unknown men were trailing her. The military government would later send a ‘high-powered’ delegation to the Abiola family to commiserate with them over the brutal assassination of their matriarch.
In the videos below, Kudirat, the wife of the late MKO Abiola is shown watching General Abacha on the television:
Kudirat Abiola Watching General Sani Abacha on TV 2
Kudirat Abiola Watching General Sani Abacha on TV
-Meanwhile in May 2001, a Federal High Court in Abuja declared that Mohammed had no case to answer in the Kudirat Abiola charges and was roped in simply on circumstantial evidence. He was released and went to Kano where he was treated to a hero’s welcome by hordes of Abacha’s supporters. He would later refuse to sign the proposed settlement agreement with the FGN announced by the Swiss authorities in April 2001. At about the same time, he was paid a visit by General Muhammadu Buhari who announced he was going to run against Obasanjo come 2003. Assuming Buhari won, it is safe to assume that the Abacha family would have had a better deal but Buhari lost to Baba Iyabo.
MKO
Abiola & Wife, Kudirat Abiola:::Both died under very questionable
circumstances. A nation without justice should not dream of greatness.
- South Africa was vociferous in its condemnation of the killing of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola. The South African government called the assassination of the woman a horrifying event. The SA Foreign Minister Alfred Nzo while calling for the release of Abiola said: “It is all the more regrettable that this tragedy occurred while her husband remains detained.”
- The spokesman for the British Foreign Office called the shooting ‘tragic news’.
- Nigerian activists represented by Shina Loremikan, spokesperson of the Campaign for Democracy pressure group: “The Civil Liberties Organization calls for a judicial panel of enquiry for a thorough investigation of the circumstances leading to the brutal murder and prosecution of the culprits. This is a very bad omen for the nation. We need an immediate return to democracy because the military regime with all its might still cannot guarantee the safety of life.”
Femi Ojo-Ade analyzed the murder as follows:
Before her sudden, and speedy elimination, Kudirat had become one more victim of harassment in the hands of those holding the poor country in bondage. Everyone with a brain knew exactly why: Unlike many others echoing their master’s voice by calling for compromise, dialogue, and connivance as the best way forward, the woman kept insisting on her husband’s right to justice.
In Nigeria, if you insist on your right, you are adjudged to be confrontational. Since the military and their brothers and sisters from the North have been chosen by the Almighty to rule the country forever, it makes sense that, if you are oppressed, battered, butchered, or whatever, it is your duty to beg the oppressors who are simply acting out their God-given right. You must not resist, because Allah has decided the condition to which you must resign yourself. Maybe that is why Kudirat’s submissive family did not deem it necessary to cry out on her behalf while she was still alive.
Maybe another reason would be more pertinent. They were convinced she was being confrontational or, worse still, over-ambitious, obsessed with first ladyship (as Abiola’s most senior wife) and the power deriving from the position. Now, as far as the first ladyship is concerned, let us agree that, in the Nigerian context, particularly in the performance of those two namesakes who followed each other in proving their care for the Nigerian Woman and Family by piling up billions, there is reason to fear, or envy, Kudirat’s potential. Which does not mean that she was into anything unheard of, or beyond her right. For, whether the Abiolas or all of us like it or not, she was the man’s senior wife and, therefore, in charge of the household, and his affairs, while he remained in jail. Kudirat proved her mettle during the 1993 election campaign. Her husband never has any reason to doubt her competence. The very fact that, throughout his ongoing travails, she was the ONLY member of his family with enough courage to speak out, and to refuse to veer from the path of justice and fair play, shows that Kudirat was a superior human being.
Before she was killed, Kudirat was embroiled in a quarrel with Abiola’s first son, Kola, over the choice of attorneys. The case was, and still is, in court. The two lawyers are, G. K. O. Ajayi, and F. R. A. Williams, both of them well-respected in the profession. Kudirat stuck with Ajayi, the one handling the case from the beginning, while Kola preferred Williams who, according to him, and Falomo, Abiola’s personal doctor, has been chosen as replacement by Abiola himself. This last piece of information or, let us say, clarification of near- (now, total, with Kudirat’s passing) unanimity, is contained in a full-page advertorial by the family, published in several newspapers on June 16, 1996. The signatories are, Alhaji Mubashiru Abiola, the detainee’s junior brother, and Alhaji Adio Kassim, a close family friend. It is useful to make a comprehensive analysis of the published statement.
Firstly, the family members express their gratitude to the federal military government, ‘for sending a high-powered delegation to express heart-felt sympathies over the death of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.’
INVESTIGATIONS
Although Kudirat was assassinated in 1996, it would not be until the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo that investigations would be properly launched into the affair. However, all the senior police and military chiefs implicated in the assassination denied having anything to do with it. Al-Mustapha said not once did he order Rogers to kill anybody and the former army chief, Lt. General Ishaya Bamaiyi washed his hands of any ‘illegal operations’.
On his own, Mohammed Abacha said he only saw Al-Mustapha giving some weapons to Sergeant Rogers for an operation but that he was not aware of the operation and did not take part in the killing of anybody. Rogers maintained he was saying the truth and that he even got the weapons (to kill Alex Ibru) from General Bamaiyi, who was the Lagos Garrison Commander and even got cover from the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, who ordered the diversion of a police patrol team away from the premises of Guardian newspapers.
In November 2007, Mr. Mohammed Abdul, a driver to the defunct Presidential Strike Force aka Abacha Killer Squad narrated in court what happened that fateful day:
“Alhaji Mohammed called me and told me to go to Dodan Barracks in Lagos and work with the squad to carry out the said assignments.
“I went to Dodan Barracks and met Lawal, a Chief Superintendent of police and Rogers.
”I drove them to the places where we carried out the three operations. We carried out surveillance before each of the operations.
“We were aided in this task by the Personal Assistant to the late Mrs. Abiola, Alhaji Lati, who gave us the information and pointed many places to us.
”The places we visited during our preparation for the attack were Victoria Island, Igbosere, Dolphin Estate, Ikeja and Dodan Barracks, which we normally returned to after every operation.
”I am an experienced driver who knows Lagos very well. Five of us were in the team that carried out the operations.
“The five are myself, Lawal, Rogers, Aminu Mohammed, and Sunmaila Shaibu, who was later killed in a bomb blast at Abuja Airport. But Aminu only took part in the two of the operations.”
” Before the attack, Lati took us to Abiola’s house on Toyin Street, Ikeja.
”We actually drove in and entered the compound. Lati conducted us briefly round the compound and pointed to some vehicles before we drove out. We went to drop him (Lati) in his house at Surulere.
”On the day of the attack, we followed Kudirat Abiola’s white Mercedez Benz from Ikeja to Allen Avenue and then to Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. When we got to the Toll Gate area, Rogers asked me to get close to the Benz and I did.
”Then, he (Rogers) leaned out of the window and started spraying the victim with bullets with the P 90 rifle. After, we immediately drove to Dodan Barracks.”
“In 1999, after the arrest of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and others, Alhaji Mohammed (Mohammed Abacha) called me and told me to go to Abuja and gather up everybody who took part in the operations for the purpose of leaving the country.
“He offered us money for the travel and later gave me $10, 000. I travelled to Abuja to inform two of those who participated- Aminu and Rogers. Rogers was not interested in leaving the country.
”I travelled to Niger Republic with Aminu, but I kept $9,800 out of the $10, 000 given to me by Mohammed with a friend and went to Niger with only $200 but I came back four days later.
”When I came back I collected the money, and changed it to naira. I intended to use the money to buy a car because that was the only thing I did not have then. I already had a house.
“But on my way to where I would buy the car, armed robbers attacked me and stole the money.”
He also claimed that the P90 rifle they used in killing Kudirat Abiola and the attempted assassination of Chief Abraham Adesanya was given to them by former Zamfara State military administrator, Bala Yakubu.
Rogers narrate in the video below how they assassinated Kudirat Abiola:
REMEMBRANCE
- MONDAY, 27TH OCTOBER, 1997: The Kudirat Abiola Corner of the 44th Street and Second Avenue in New York, United States of America was installed in 1997 in her honour. The name change faced serious opposition from the Nigerian government and far-right American leader Roy Innis.
- The Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) was set up by her daughter, Hafsat Abiola.
- Radio Kudirat was named in her honour.
Her burial.
SO WHAT DO YOU ACTUALLY THINK ABOUT THIS POST? WHY DON'T YOU SCROLL DOWN BELOW AND LEAVE A COMMENT FOR PEOPLE TO SEE...
Loading...
testin
No comments:
Post a Comment
What Do You Think About This Post?
Post Your Comments