A MAJOR political milestone, the June 12, 1993 presidential election which has led to ‘Democracy Day’ in Nigeria, might not have occurred. That is if five years earlier some personnel of the Nigeria Air Force Base in Lagos had succeeded in murdering the eventual winner of that election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola.
Abiola, then regarded as the richest man in the country, was extremely powerful with personal friends like then head of the military junta, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. But despite these and his immense international status, Abiola, in the eyes of the military, was no more than a ‘bloody civilian’ as some soldiers derogatorily refer to non-military personnel.
The cause of this conflict was the disconnection of the barracks from power supply for allegedly being indebted to the tune of N4.3 billion. The barracks gave the electricity company 48 hours within which to restore power which the latter failed to do.
His near-death encounter was on Monday, January 25, 1988, right inside his palatial home. That day, some soldiers had gone on rampage in Lagos over a traffic accident. In the ensuing commotion, Ayodeji Abiola, Chief Abiola’s second son, had a minor traffic accident with a vehicle driven by Air Force Corporal M. Danjuma. Apparently, this issue was not properly resolved before Abiola’s son left the scene.
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The Air Force personnel trailed the latter to his father’s house, and armed reinforcements were brought who opened fire. One of the bullets narrowly missed Chief Abiola. The business mogul took the matter up with the military authorities.
Air Vice Marshall Nura Imam who was the Air Officer Commanding, Logistics Command, Ikeja and a member of the then Armed Forces Ruling Council, waved off the incident as a non-issue. The media reported him as saying that Abiola should know that the Air Force personnel were “mad dogs”.
On Thursday, March 6, 2025, that is 37 years after the Abiola incidence, gallant officers and men from the same barracks, now named Sam Ethnan Barracks, were on similar operational duties in Lagos.
The enemies identified were not terrorists, bandits, kidnappers or even criminals. The targets were the management and staff of the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company. The two enemy locations were the company’s corporate headquarters in Ikeja and its Oshodi Business Unit Office.
The NAF assault team allegedly led by a woman, was conveyed in a military truck, two OP-MESA vehicles, and other vehicles.
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They condoned off the roads leading to the headquarters, scaled the fence and, commenced their operation which lasted one and a half hours. One of the staff, Michael Sani, was approaching the gate when he noticed something was amiss. He ran into the police station nearby; the NAF commandos entered the station, seized and brought him into the premises.
The first group the military contingent encountered were journalists in a bus parked in the premises who were scheduled to attend a solar unveiling project in Adiyan, Ogun State. This fortuitous presence of journalists obliged the public first-hand accounts of the military operation.
In the absence of the above, groups and individuals can take up the matter. For instance, the brutalised journalists, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) can ensure justice is done. The brutalised electricity staff, their trade unions can equally take up the case. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) can also back up the NUJ and unions for action that would force the hands of government and ensure that the bullies and torturers from the barracks are brought to justice.
Some of the journalists were swiftly captured and their ‘dangerous weapons’ such as mobile phones, tripod, memory card and power bank, were confiscated. These prisoners of war (POWs) were told they were liable to being shot if they uttered a word.
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It did not matter if these were journalists on routine duty or whether some of the victims were just customers of the company. As Babangida wrote in his journey in self-service memoirs: “In the military mind-set, there are only two types of people: enemies or friends. Our political opponents were, therefore, primarily ‘enemy forces’ before they were fellow Nigerians.” To the Air Force fighters, they were on enemy territory; so, all souls found therein were enemies and had to be treated as such.
It is not for nothing that when the Nigerian military enters a town, whether it is Odi, Zaki-Biam, Ugep or Okuoma, living things in them are regarded as enemies and, therefore, legitimate targets.
In the Lagos operation, the air men destroyed property, including CCTV cameras, computers and electricity equipment.
The staff and civilians captured, who included women, said they were so badly beaten with plastic rods that they could not even stand up. Some were repeatedly trampled upon with military boots as they laid unarmed on the ground. The captured electricity staff were taken to the NAF military base in Oshodi where they were tortured in the open field under the hot sun.
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The NAF team apparently had no respect for the Geneva Convention on the rights and protection of POWs from physical and mental torture. The NAF troops also ‘liberated’ the money in the pockets of their adversaries and made a cache of mobile phones which might have been ‘privatised’.
The cause of this conflict was the disconnection of the barracks from power supply for allegedly being indebted to the tune of N4.3 billion. The barracks gave the electricity company 48 hours within which to restore power which the latter failed to do.
We cannot hope to build a nation where peace and justice reign if we do not have the courage to rein in people imbued with a sense of entitlement and immunity from criminal liability.
Rather than resort to legal or constitutional means, the NAF commanders took matters into their hands leading to the invasion. It is clear that despite 25 years of civil rule, many in the military still have the mentality that they are superior to civil laws and cannot live by constitutional precepts.
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It will be easy to bring the Lagos invaders to book because there are video footages. In any case, since the military is said to be a disciplined force, someone must have given the orders to turn the troops out.
If this government is serious about the rule of law and social justice, it can order the immediate detention, investigation and subsequent trial of those who took part in the lawlessness and criminality.
Also, were we in a disciplined, accountable or civilised country where the rule of law rather than impunity reigns, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Hassan Bala Abubakar, would have apologised to the country and tendered his resignation.
In the absence of the above, groups and individuals can take up the matter. For instance, the brutalised journalists, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) can ensure justice is done. The brutalised electricity staff, their trade unions can equally take up the case. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) can also back up the NUJ and unions for action that would force the hands of government and ensure that the bullies and torturers from the barracks are brought to justice.
The electricity company itself needs to recover its losses by making the Sam Ethnan Barracks pay for damages. I am sure if it picks up the courage to do so, there will be many lawyers willing to offer their services.
We cannot hope to build a nation where peace and justice reign if we do not have the courage to rein in people imbued with a sense of entitlement and immunity from criminal liability.
