The Executive Director of the Centre for Free Speech Organization, Mr. Richard Akinnola, has publicly faulted the claims made by former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd), regarding the murder of Dele Giwa, the founding Editor-in-Chief of Newswatch. Akinnola’s remarks come amidst ongoing discussions and controversies surrounding the death of the prominent journalist.
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In his commentary, he said, “Major Debo Bashorun was a Media Assistant to General Ibrahim Babangida. For years, he had a running battle with the military authorities, particularly Brigadier Haliru Akilu.”
At the early stages of Babangida’s government, he was quite visible in the government. He was so close to the former President that he even wrote a book on him. As a matter of fact, on the day Babangida went to the NTA for his first broadcast after the ouster of Buhari, he was in the same car with IBB, editing the speech. After the parcel bomb murder of Dele Giwa, he was the one Babangida sent with a condolence letter to Giwa’s widow, Funmi, who rejected the letter.
But after a few years, things got awry between Major Debo Bashorun and General Ibrahim Babangida. As military press secretary to the former President, his closeness to the General made the Chief spook of the government, Brigadier Haliru Akilu, uncomfortable. He therefore put a wedge between the duo, as Bashorun was labeled a security risk. And who was Babangida to question his chief spook? An average dictator is a prisoner of his Security Chief. And Babangida was not an exception. What led to this?
The murder of Dele Giwa. Major Bashorun was given an assignment which Bashorun felt was to cover up the government’s complicity in the murder. He refused to play ball, and he was then labeled a security risk and transferred out of Dodan Barracks after a series of interrogation by the DMI. Akilu didn’t want to see Bashorun at the Dodan Barracks, the then seat of Government, and inexplicably in November 1988, he influenced his transfer to the 31 Airborne Brigade, Makurdi.
Major Bashorun resisted the move as, according to him, the transfer was to pave the way for his elimination. When his protests did not yield any fruit, he scurried to the chambers of Alao Aka-Bashorun, the late Aka-Bashorun, then president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), who advised that he resigned, which he did on December 23, 1988. But the resignation letter was rejected by the army authorities which insisted that he must report at Makurdi. He was declared AWOL. He then instituted an action against Brigadier Akilu, Brigadier Fred Chijuka, and the Army Council, alleging harassment and threat to life.
Justice Olusola Thomas, then of the Lagos High Court, restrained the Army from harassing the officer and from also ejecting him from his official quarters. At the initial period of the case, the Ministry of Defence was being defended by a retired Army Major in private practice. At the next adjourned date, Mr. Moshood Adio, then of the Ministry of Justice, appeared for the Army. Mr. Aka-Bashorun objected to his appearance on the premise that one lawyer had already filed a memorandum of appearance and had not withdrawn from the case. Justice Thomas overruled this objection, and Aka-Bashorun headed for the Appeal Court, which ruled in his favour.
Meanwhile, before the case went to the Court of Appeal, Major Bashorun had alleged that his life was being threatened by soldiers who laid siege to his house. He therefore abandoned his house and went into hiding.
Before the next adjourned date, Major Bashorun got a hint that he might be abducted by armed soldiers at the court premises. He therefore came to court well-prepared for a battle. Dressed in a brown flowing Agbada, his eyes darted across the courtroom in quick succession. Beneath his billowing Agbada were three deadly instruments of death—two Israeli Uzzis strapped to his body and another pistol holed somewhere in his pocket. This particular day, his usually bright and lively countenance was now contorted in an angry scowl, exhibiting a desperate mien.
With three guns in his possession, Major Bashorun was ready for the battle of his life. Predictably, there were about twelve armed soldiers in the courtroom on this day.
Before the court started sitting, Major Bashorun confided in his lawyer, Aka-Bashorun, what was in the offing. He told Aka-Bashorun: ‘They want to seize me. They want to take me to Makurdi by force and kill me, and I am not going. I’m ready to die here in the courtroom. Before they kill me, I will kill some of them. Some of them will go along with me. That’s why I am with these guns.’
He therefore cautioned Aka-Bashorun to leave the courtroom immediately after the court session or to stay put in the court so that he won’t be caught in the cross-fire outside the courtroom. As soon as the case was adjourned, Aka-Bashorun told his junior lawyers to quickly pack their books and disappear from the vicinity.
On his way out, he met Brigadier Chijuka and challenged him why there were so many soldiers around. Chijuka assured him that there was no cause for alarm. But Aka-Bashorun was not satisfied with such an assurance. We all doubled our steps and stood at the Igbosere Street adjoining the High Court, to watch the battle at a safe distance. But that was not to be as nothing happened.
Major Bashorun eventually escaped to the United States of America.”
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