General Oladipo Diya’s narrow escape

In an interview, Diya said:

We were to be executed in Jos, Plateau State. They had taken us out of prison and Sergeant Barnabas Rogers was in charge, decked in battle dress. They were to take us for execution. They took us out. Adisa was there, so was Olanrewaju. As we were going, around midnight, the vehicle stopped.

The reason the vehicle stopped, we didn’t know, but it stopped. Was it the engine? Was it tyre? We didn’t know. We were there, waiting and waiting. When it was 5:45a.m. in the morning, the driver started the van, made a U-turn and took us back to prison.

Again, what happened? It was a miracle of God. It was divine intervention because, you know, one Major was complaining to the GOC. I remember that the GOC was one of our students, now a commandant of the National War College. The Major was challenging the GOC: ‘You are taking these people for execution in the morning. The execution was to take place at 7.00 a.m.

All you were saying was that somebody phoned you on behalf of Abacha. Suppose tomorrow, the person denies, what will you have as evidence?’ The GOC was stunned. We heard the story later after they had returned us to the prison. Then, the GOC now said okay and he started trying to call Abacha, just for Abacha to give a go-ahead. This officer could not do anything without Abacha’s instruction.But Abacha had an attitude: he never picked phone calls. And that attitude of not taking phone calls was another miracle. He did not pick his calls and when the officer tried and tried until around 5:30 a.m. and could not get Abacha, he had to give instruction that they should return us, saying that he would go to Abacha to take permission from him.

He went and got the instruction and said that they should now take us to Kano, where the execution would now be done. They took us to Kano and put us in a small house. I don’t know the owner of that house, a bungalow, but that was where we were all crammed. We got to Kano on Sunday evening for execution the next morning. But that was the night Abacha died. We wouldn’t have known but for one of the soldiers, called Sergeant Bush, who went to buy batteries for his radio — a Hausa man would always have a radio.

That was how we heard that Abacha had died. So, he came back to where we were held in that bungalow and started quarreling with Sergeant Rogers that he heard from a BBC Hausa programme that Abacha died and he was not going to take part in this firing squad except another head of state gave them a directive.

That was the beginning of another controversy between Sergeant Bush and Sergeant Rogers, because three other men supported him. Sergeant Rogers was the one that led the others, the camp of four men. So, we thank God that split caused the delay to execute us, because it was now four on each side.

The other camp led by Bush said if the Rogers group tried to kill us, they would shoot themselves. That created the split and that was why the execution was not carried out. Was that not another divine intervention? It was not by our power, it was God. All this was not known to members of the public, so, I have every cause to be grateful to God.

Born on April 3, 1944, Diya died on March 3, 2023.

He was arrested over allegations that he planned a coup against Sani Abacha. However, Diya maintained his innocence saying all he said was that the military should handover to a civilian government.