Chief Ayo Opadokun, former leader of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, has given ex-Chief Security Adviser (CSO) to former Head of State, late General Sani Abacha, seven days to retract his comment that he and other Yoruba leaders took bribe from those who killed Chief MKO Abiola or face libel suit.
He also questioned the mental state of Al-Mustapha over “resurrection of his old allegations of 2011 ”, adding that Al-Mustapha ”may have been mentally affected by hi s long stay in prison while undergoing trial for the murder of late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.”
Opadokun, who already denied the allegation, dared Al-Mustapha to produce the tape he said he had to prove that he and others collected money.
He told newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos that he will set the records straight against the attempt by Al-Mustapha to malign the character of notable and patriotic leaders of NADECO, some of whom were now late.
Opadokun insisted that Al-Mustapha was only trying to soil the image of credible Yoruba leaders to make himself look clean.
His words: “I was incarcerated in Ikoyi prisons for 24 calendar months under late General Sani Abacha for my political views and leanings, only to be released by General Abdulsalami Abubakar after Abacha’s death.
“Upon my release, my leader and chairman of NADECO, late Pa Abraham Adesanya informed me that the new administration of Abdulsalami Abukakar was meeting with various groups across the country on the way forward and has requested a meeting with the leadership of NADECO, of which I was chosen to be a member of the team.”
”The members were late Pa Abraham Adesanya, late chief Francis Okpozo, Arthur Nwankwo, Bola Ige and Ayo Opadokun”, he recalled.
According to him, the team met with the head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar and his Chief of Staff and deputy, Commodore Mike Okhai Akhigbe with then Colonel Leo Ajiborisa, the staff officer to the head of state, who took the minutes of the meeting which held in the villa eight days after the death of General Abacha.
Opadokun stated that the team told the head of state that the only way forward was for the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, Abiola to be released from detention and allowed to form a Government of National Unity (GNU) and thereafter convoke a Sovereign National Conference (SNC).
“After the conclusion of the meeting, we were driven straight from the villa to the airport”, he said.
Opadokun insisted that at no time was he a member of a team of Yoruba leaders other than NADECO members who met and discussed on the way forward with the Abubakar administration after the death of General Sani Abacha.
Opadokun lamented that Al-Mustapha who should have been consigned to the dustbin of history because of the role he played in holding the country hostage , was now being given cheap popularity which his spurious allegation was meant to achieve in the media.
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