When it was my turn they asked for my name and I said I am Professor Femi Odekunle.There after I did not experience any further beating but other people were beaten in terms of bulala [horse whip].There were eight guard rooms [cells] in all.I was allocated to Room 4 where I met Colonel Shoda, Colonel Chiefe and two other people, meaning that we were five to a room. You were not allowed to go to the toilet until they were ready which was twice a day, at most.The daily routine at Gado Nasko is like this - in the morning around 7a.m. or 8 a.m. they would open one room at a time and tell you to go to the toilet. The other rooms remain locked while all of you in the opened room are marched to the toilet though you were not supposed to look to your left where the other detainees were so that you wouldn't know who was there. When you get to the toilet, there is a guard waiting and watching you while you're doing 'No.1' and 'No. 2'. I hope you understand that -No. 1 isurinating while No 2 is shitting [defecating [. Sometimes as you are about to embark on either No. 1 or No.2 the man would shout, "Timeup!" and that's it.You've lost your chance. It is not a question of going there to spend five or 10 minutes. For the first two weeks, we did not brush our mouths; and for the first one and a half weeks, no bath. When it was exactly one and a half weeks we were taken out to have our bath.I quickly removed my clothes, no shyness or any inhibition of any sort,and took the opportunity to wash my already dirty clothes because we were sleeping on bare cement floor. While I was having my bath, I could remember Major Ishiaku saying,"Oh, Prof., I didn't know you are light skinned,I thought you'reblack." That's to show you how dirty I really looked.And that was the first time, when I looked at the mirror, I saw my left eye looking like the multi-colour picture of the earth that you take when you are coming from outer space, with green, blue, brown patches allover.that was how my left eye looked and I thought I was in real trouble.Actually, I thought I had got brain damage because one and a half weeks later, I developed vertigo, a dizzy spell whereby when you stand up you feel like falling down. It could be on the right or on the left. One day, we were all marched out in handcuffs to goand see a doctor. It was the firsttimesince my arrival in Gado Nasko that I would be handcuffed. Before then, I was not, may be others were. Again, you could not see the military doctor privately. A guard had to be around. I told the doctor that I thought that I had brain damage but he said he didn't think so. Up till now, I'm not convinced until I have had the chance to seek proper medical examination of my head,because I received too much battering on the head,especially on the left side. Those boys really had homicidal intentionsin their dealings with me.Did you get details of the arrest of General Diya and others later? Yes, but that was in the prison because despite the tight security situation, we found away of talking to one another, particularly at the beginning and towards the end, not during the investigations or during the trial. SO, you get to exchange views in a very secretive manner because you are not allowed to engage in open discussion. Take Gado Nasko Barracks, for example, we were three in a room, definitely we would talk. For example, it was there I asked Keshinro why he brought the arresting squad to my house. Major Ishiaku and I also talked but I didn't knowthat both Adisa and Olanrewajuwerethere until weeks later when we got to Jos.What about GeneralDiya? General Diya, I understand, was in a guest house some where in Abuja where he was detained.But you must have met at theSpecial Investigation Board (SIB).Not really. But before we go to the SIB stage, let me say more about the experience in Gado Nasko guard room. The summary of it is that you are inside 24hour a day and you are only allowed to come out for two things. One, to go to the toilet in the morning, in military fashion or, let me say, in an unnatural fashion.You are marched out and must not look to your left,neither must you talk to anybody and somebody is at door shouting, "Time up!" evenbefore youdo anything. One evening, after staying for about two weeks, they called me: and anytime they wanted to call anybody we were always afraid.There was the case of one Hausa boy whom they brought,for the time he spent with us he did not stop saying "Laila ilalahu, laila ilalahu."[There is no other god but Allah]. he was panic stricken andhe was shaking all the time. He was totally distraught. He was almost psychiatric. Forwhenthey opened the door, while hewas still shoutinglaila ilalahu,they gave him more thorough beating. Thus, anytime they called you, you were bound to be afraid. We even heard that those in the general store area,who were more than 20, were regularly flogged. In other words, as bad as our own case was, we had, I hate to use the word, a better status treatment compared to those in the general guardroom.Who were those?Corporals,sergeant sand others like the Cokers, the Owatimehins and the Kotangoras. Those people suffered more. They would just come and say, "Oh,yes, we have to cane you now."And wham, fiam, wham, wham,fiam, thebulala[horsewhip]would besounding on theirbodies. They would, at times,beat them before breakfast.They would say, "Do you want your 'hottea' before or after food?" The 'hot tea' is either sixor 12 strokes of the cane. There was a day one of those flogging detainees saw one detainee and said, "Your body is too smooth, it needs some patterns" and he caned and caned and caned him until he collapsed only to cover himself with a towel, the only "dress" on him when he was arrested. One day, when it was already two weeks, they woke me up in the midnight and theysaid,"Professor,you are wanted". When I got there, I saw this major whom I later learnt to be Major [Adamu] Argungu, a military police attached to the [AsoRock]villa. He said, "Professor, do you know me?" I told him I didn't know him.He said, "Well, how do we get the key to your office?" I told him he could always collect it from the registry. After threatening that he would deal ruthlessly with me if he found any drawer or cabinet locked, he then turned to the guards and asked why I was not in chains. One of the lieutenants told him that it was because there were not enough chains. Then Major Argungu said, "But that's standard procedure. Go and bring one in my car." So they went for it and chained me there and then. So I joined the group of chained detainees. One day again, this [strange] man came to wake me up and said, "Professor, you are wanted." I met Major Argungu,I was in handcuff and leg-iron; and he asked me to enter his car. I did.At the back was a bouncer, I mean somebody who looked like a bouncer.He said the CSO wanted to see me. When we arrived in the villa, they took me to the basement and I was just looking because this was a situation in which somebody could just pick you and kill you,just like that. I was the only one in the basement. have they brought me here to be slaughtered? I asked myself. Later, the man came in, that'sMajor Mustapha. he said,"Bring him up." They took me up to him and he said, "Sit down." I,who had not seen any soft surface for two weeks? He said,"Professor, I want to help you but you have to tell me all you know about this matter. We take it for granted that military people can do things and the civilians may not know when they are participating but we will make it a military affair. We don't want any civilians so, just tell me what you know and we would help you." I said I just wanted to see my family. He said, "I will help you but first tell us what you know. We have talked to Diya,he has talked alot and has mentioned your name. We have talked to PatrickAziza and he too has mentioned your name. So, definitely you must have something to say about ..." Sorry, I have omitted something and it is very vital.When that Major Argungu called for me and asked for the key to myoffice, three or four days later he was at my office and when I was picked up to see the CSO, he said, "Professor, so you write useless memos. I saw the letter you wrote to General [Jeremiah] Useni [minister incharge of the federal capital territory, FCT]. Is that the job of a professor? Writing about [Chief Obafemi] Awolowo not getting a befitting road in Abuja.You are a useless professor. Is that what you are supposed to use your brain to be writing?"So, I was trying to say that there was nothing wrong in raising this kind of issue. He said, "are you arguing with me?" I said no.The thing is that I had written a letter as far back as 1994 when I was still in ABU on my persona letter head which bore my name- Femi Odekunle,Professor of Criminology - a very polite letter indeed that requested for amendment over this complaint in Abuja that all nationalist leaders had double carriage roads, large or long streets [named after them] except Chief Awolowo. I did not believe until I got to Abuja to see that it was true and that it was only Awolowo who had something like an alley named after him. I pleaded to Useni that it might not be his fault, may be an oversight or something on the part of the previous administration. I wrote that he did not need to set up a committee to do this, he needed just to do it and it would be to his credit. It was the copy of that letter that was found in my possession and for which the major was insulting me and rebuking me for being a professor who is expressing ethnic sentiments.I told him it was not ethnic sentiment. He was not done with me yet. He accused me again of being Diya's favourite. He said, "Why is it that anytime you people are going in a convoy the CGS would ask you to leave your car and sit with him in his own car? So, you are his favourite no beso [isn'tthat so]? You must have been enjoying it, but now you'repaying for it." He said all kinds of things portraying the fact that he was a prejudiced major.It also shows that they had no reason for arresting me in the first place. It was only after I had been arrested that they were looking for an offence to hang on my neck. But why this prejudice? Was it because of where I come from or was it justan attempt to clear everybody of my kind? Sorry for the digression. We can now connect with the Major El-Mustapha interrogation. He was saying that he would help me if I could tell him where Diya had sent me but I told him that I didn't know anything but he said they had talked about me, Diya and Aziza. I said,"Well, let them come and face me because I do not know anything aboutwhatyou are telling me." After about 30minutes or so, I said: "In the name of God, I beg you to leave me alone and let me go back to my family."He said he was only ready to help me if I could help him. I thought to myself that this man wanted me to help him by incriminating myself. I said eventhough my life depends on this matter there was no way I was going to lie against myself or against anybody. It was a no-win situation for him.After about thirty minutes, he ordered that I should be taken out and carried back to the guardroom.
...to be continued
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