February 14th 1998, Major General Victor Malu, who headed the Special Military Tribunal never knew the bombshell was to be thrown by any amongst those standing trial for the busted coup d’état of 1997, as he was seen eager to begin the hearings and obviously ready to give his premeditated verdicts as soon as possible as all the selected world’s leading journalists stood in silence to cover the proceeding.
The Tribunal held its first sitting in Jos, Plateau State.

The trial was held in camera at the Rayfield GRA, Jos, Plateau State amid heavy security, and all the Tribunal’s proceedings were to be filmed on a daily basis and must be sent to General Abacha for his personal monitoring and viewing pleasure.
It was a known fact to everyone who was present at the Special Military Tribunal’s proceeding that the ultimate consequence of participating in a failed coup d’état is death.
General Victor Malu, whether by design or error, looked at General Oladipo Diya who was in the eyes of the storm and asked him if he had anything to say.
General Diya who wore a white silk kaftan stood up, cleared his throat as he opened his mouth, he said he was surprised that General Ishayya Bamayyi was not there amongst them as one who masterminded the coup.
He asked the Tribunal “Where is the Chief of Army Staff, General Bamaiyi, the mastermind, the planner and the executor of the coup”?
“I am not surprised, this is indeed a clear case of setup” General Diya concluded.

CLEAR CASE OF SETUP suddenly became the newspaper headlines in the days that followed across the globe which dented the image of General Sani Abacha’s regime on the world’s stage.
It was recorded that in the entire records of Abacha’s inglorious regime, nothing else had rattled his government like this statement and which obviously weakened the veracity of the coup as phantom and watered-down the credibility of all the trials and the Tribunal’s proceedings.
General Diya was later sentenced to death by the Tribunal. But heaven smiled on him when General Sani Abacha died untimely in a weird circumstances few months after his conviction and he was pardoned and released by General Abdulsalam Abubakar who took the mantle of leadership after the sudden death of General Abacha.
General Diya lived quietly for another twenty five years before his death was announced yesterday, 26th of March 2023.

May his soul find eternal peaceful rest 🙏
Written by:
Oladele Idowu Joseph