President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Political Matters, Babafemi Ojudu, has narrated how Oladipo Diya, saved him and other journalists from assassination by the late military Head of State, Sani Abacha.
Diya was Abacha’s former Chief of General Staff and then second in-Command.
Speaking in Lagos, Ojudu narrated that a tip-off from Diya saved him and some journalists who were marked for assassination, following the publication of a damning story.
According to the veteran journalist, “I had just arrived Nigeria from London. Two days after, I got this message from General Diya, saying, ‘Femi get out of the country, you have been ordered to be executed.’
“That night, I left home, I went through the border to Ghana, and from Ghana to Kenya with all kinds of fake identities.
“I received offers to go and live in London and America with all kinds of covert identities, I said ‘No, I didn’t tell my wife and colleagues who are in Nigeria that I was leaving.’
“I went back to Ghana, the Ghanaian Union of Journalists appealed to me to stay in the country. As I was entering the border, they arrested me and that was the beginning of my nine months journey in prison.
“I was in the Senate and I believed I had access to information. I will give journalists useful information, they will go back to the people involved, collect money and tell them this is what Ojudu gave us.
“One colleague called me and said ‘These your colleagues that you are feeding with stories will kill you’. I decided to give up”.
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