Mamman Vatsa’s Execution: I Was Powerless, Couldn’t Save Him – IBB

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

Former Military President, General Ibrahim  Babangida has described the presentation  by a Military Commission of Inquiry,  incontrovertible evidence linking Mamman Vatsa to the 1985 putsch  as one of the most difficult moments in his eight-year tenure as Nigerian leader.

Babangida, popular as IBB, said he was completely shocked and disappointed by the panel’s findings, and was deeply devastated by the grim, but unavoidable reality of having to watch his closet friend and school mate of many years, executed alongside other officers indicted by the military panel of plotting a violent overthrow of  his Government.

The source reports that, at the time,  not a few were shocked that IBB could allow Vatsa ,a close associate and school mate at Government College Bida ,Niger state ,both of whom had enlisted into the Nigerian Military School same period and year to be executed. An accomplished poet, Major General Vatsa was executed within an hour after Nigeria’s literary giants – Professors Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark – went to IBB to plead that his life be spared.

But defending himself in an interview with Badeggi FM radio Minna in commemoration of his 85th birthday celebration ,the former Military President insisted that he couldn’t have intervened to save his friend without compromising and undermining the country’s military laws, security architecture, and exposing his administration to unbridled and inordinate military adventurism

According to Babangida , when the report  on the alleged involvement of Vatsa, then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, and Major -General Gado Nasko in the planned coup reached him, he could not believe it owing to their close affinity.

“But while General Gado Nasko was cleared of any wrongdoing ,the Panel found evidence linking Vatsa to the coup plot.

“There was nothing I could do to exonerate him ( Vatsa) from the consequences prescribed by military law. My hands were tied. That was how I lost my brother, General Mamman Vatsa”, he  stated .

IBB said he had earlier on, when news about the planned coup reached him, invited the duo of Nasko and Vatsa to his office to ascertain the truth concerning their alleged involvement .

According to him, he could not believe the preliminary findings indicating that Vatsa was involved considering their long-term relationship and shared history.

“When they arrived, I asked them about the reports that they had been mentioned in a plot to topple my Government .

“Both of them denied any involvement. A Military Commission of Inquiry was, thereafter, set up to investigate the matter.

“While General Gado Nasko was cleared of any wrongdoing, the panel found evidence linking Vatsa to the plot”, Babangida added.