Where were you taken to? When we got downstairs they continued pushing me; and neighbours who had been woken up, apparently by the commotion were watching the whole incident from their windows. I was not wearing any shoes, not even bathroom slippers that I normally wore.I was in this light khaftan-likehouse dress with virtually nothing under (except the boxershorts) and this was harmattan [cold] period (in Abuja and the North). They put me and Major Keshinro in this station wagon and drove us away but I noticed that the team left about two of their men behind.
What, at the time, did you think could have been the motive for your arrest? What I thought in my brain at the time was the bomb blast (at the Abuja airport) of the previous week and the press coverage which they did not want. I thought maybe I was being held responsible for the wide media interest in the matter because we had heard rumours that some people were worried about the presscoverage of that bomb blast. I thought they came to get me because they believed I wasresponsible for it. So, they took me away. By the time we covered about half a kilometre, I was already shaking, not much as a result of the physical wounds but because of the cold harmattan weather. One of them suddenly burst out: "Why are you shaking?" Then, they stopped the car and said, "Now,we are going to give you a thorough beating until you cannot shake any more." Then,that Major [Keshinro] started begging them,asking them to stop beating me. I kept quiet but I was still shaking because there was nothing I could do but to shake. Some how, they stopped and went back to the vehicle and sped so recklessly as [if] they wanted to finish me in an accident. Finally, we reached our destination - Aso Rock. [Guards] opened the gate for them and when I got there, the whole place was like bedlam. I saw about 40 to 50 of these people dressed in jeans, canvas shoes,blue or black T-shirts, fezcaps, wind breakers and some of them wearing masks (hoods).Later I gathered that these were the people called the StrikeForce. Ironically, I had been working in the Aso Rock Villa for about four years but I did not know of the existence of this Presidential StrikeForce.I saw Major [Hamza El-]Mustapha also.He was dressed in trousers, alight-colourshirt and had this walking stick which they can sit on at time[s].He was sitting on it as I was pushed to him. He said, "Yes, you stupid Yorubaman. So, where is Diya now? Where is Olanrewaju now? Where is Adisa now?" Anytime he asked this question I just opened my mouth like this(inastonishment). I was wonderingwhat else could have happened because all along I had thought that I was being arrested for this press coverage thing and that after this beating and interrogation they would release me bu tuntil he was asking: "Where is Diya now?" "Where is Adisa, you this stupid Yoruba man." I didn't really know what was happening. At times he would ask again, "You stupid professor, yes, we have seen your speech, that draft speech you wrote ... And you want to be Foreign (Affairs)Minister, you want to take [ChiefAnthony] Ikimi's job, nobi so[isn't that the case]? You go share one [pair of]trousers with Ikimi." So anytime he said something I would just exclaim "ah!"And anytime I said"ah!" like that I received a blow, gboam on my head from one of those fierce looking boys. One would give a blow from the right and as my head turned left another one would send it back with another equally deadly blow. In other words they were tossing my head around like football.
Was this happening in an open field or in a room? In front of the office of the head of state, in the courtyard. That's where the action, if you will call it that, was. And like I recorded it in my initial statement two weeks later, I said they were beating me like an offending goat on a village market day.That describes what I felt. You know the village system? On market days any goat that eats anybody's yam or any foodstuff would be beaten from stall to stall. Then the man [Major El-Mustapha] said,"No, well, stop beating him. We are supposed to be disciplined people."Then he turned to me, "Go and kneel down there." Mean while I saw MajorKeshinro also being beaten but I was the star attraction. I saw DSP Adebowale too. Everybody was kneelingdown. Major Fadipe was in another corner.He had been so badly beaten that he was bleeding profusely from the head.Now, I must remember this. Anytime Mustapha was talking to me somebody would just come and give me a blow on the back saying, "CSO [ChiefSecurity Officer] is talking to you and you are standing,kneel down!" Another one would come and say, "CSO is talking to you and you are kneeling down, stand up!" and he too would give me a blow.Somebody told me later that he thought they were going to kick me to death the way they were raining blows on me with both hands and feet. There was a time when somebody took avery vicious kick at me like a football on the penalty spot and I literally flew over the bar.Major Fadipe later told me,when we had time to discuss,that I was, indeed kicked about three feet above the ground.After some time one small boy came to challenge me that he saw me one day talking to a white man at Sheraton Hotel,Abuja, and demanded what I was telling the man. Before I could answer he was already all over me saying, "You were passing information, you were making arrangement for the coup." And I was saying, "ah, ah,no, no. I normally go to Sheraton,I go to NICON-NOGA [Hilton Hotel] either on officiall duty or to play tennis or forofficial function." He said, "No."each time during the interrogation or shall I call it during the accusation, I would get an occasional blow here and another one there. Suddenly Mustapha ordered some of the boys to pour ice cold water on me, and this was around 5.30 a.m. during the harmattan. So, they started pouring ice water on my body. And now, this may shock you. The son of General Abacha, Mohammed was the one applying electric torture prod on me. I have about six witnesses to bear me out on this. He would place the electric prod on my wet body – you need to experience it to know what I'm talking about. It is exactly like the electric shock one receives by handling a faulty electrical appliance with wet hands.I could not understand why I was so specially tortured by Mustapha, Mohammed and their boys.Mustapha's own was more psychological than physical. He would say, "You stupid Yoruba people, you think you are smart.See now,who is more knowledgeable - you a professor or me? Who is down now? Who is up?" He said, "You people think you are wise. You are knowledgeable abi[notso]? Stupid professor, I never trusted you, you see, your antecedents don't even make me trust you.You are a traitor to your own cause. By coming to work here,you are already a traitor to your own cause."I don't know what he meant by my antecedents that made him not to trust me.But he reminded me that in1994, he seized my ID card because hedidn'twant me towork in the villa. So, this idea that some people own the villa and they are the people who could work there and that even when somebody like Diya is working there and he wants to employ his own people you must be the one to decide who is good for him and who is not.This is, frommy owninterpretation, what I couldread from this kind of attitude;andif you care this is my ownanalysis of the Nigerian situation to day because otherwise at that point in time,I could not understand why myID card was seized from me but later on I came to understand it.They said they knew me fromABU [Ahmadu Bello University,Zaria] as 'radical'. I am somebody who does not agreewith the second class citizen position. I have never accepted it. I have always fought it and Ihave always done so successfully.SO, they saw me as somebody who is not the submissive type. Even the ADC [militarybody guard]to the head of state [GeneralSani Abacha],Major Abdallah,was in the same league with the Mustaphas. He saw me and said,"Professor, even you. We gave you a small opportunity to come and eat and better your life alittle bit andsee what you have done." Later Mustapha threatened that I should tell him what he wanted to know and that if I didn't, he pitied my family. I didn'tunderstand what he meant at that point in timebut I later got to know.We shall get to that later. But before finishing with me, he ordered that his boys should go back tomy house and pack all my documents, files,books-anything they could lay their hands on. He said, "Pack everything here and if he likes,he can go to the human rights commission in, ...Professor,where do you have your humanrights commission. The Hague? (He did notknow that it is inGeneva). Let him go and report there." All the time I was asking myself: Why are they treating me like this/ I am not a soldier yet my own physical harassment was more than even the soldiers' because I can now even remember something else they did to me when they were taking me from my house to Aso Rock. I had just discovered that my (neck)chain had cut when one of them saw it and demanded what it was. He then ordered one of the boys to throw the chain in my mouth and allow me to choke on it. So,I don't know what Major El-Mustapha must have told those boys but the only thing he told me was that I wrote a draftspeech and I was tobe mademinister of foreign affairs.Those came to me as a shock because I didn't know anythingabout it at all. Then they took me from Aso Rockto Gado Nasko [Barracks] guardroom.The people who took me there were very abusive while enroute there. They said, "Let'sshoot his leg." "Let'sgouge outhis eyes." - all sorts of things. AsI have already told you,I wasbadly, badly shaken. I was like achicken soaked in water.Rememberit was harmattanperiod. At Gado Nasko Barracks,they took down thenamesofnew arrivals and soon allocatedrooms [cells] to us.
...to be continued
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