By Richard Akinnola
What a day! Quite surreal. I can still picture it as it was happening 33 years ago (22 April 1990), what is known as the Gideon Orkar coup. Wanting to have a first-hand reportage, some of us ventured out. The fighting at Obalende and Mile 2 was most fierce. We were dodging for cover as the ta-ta-ta-ta staccato of bullets rained. A most unusual coup.
At the end of the day, it was crushed by loyal forces. Arrests were made and there were tribunal hearings. Again, l had the privilege of covering the opening of the trial at the Air Force Officers Mess, Kofo Abayomi, Victoria Island, Lagos.
I stood quite close to Lt Nicholas Odey at the extreme right of this picture. Lt. A. E. Akogun was on wheelchair, his left leg cast in POP, shot in the process of arrest. He seemed to be the youngest.
Again, on the day the first batch of 68 was executed at the Kirikiri prison shooting range, due to its closeness to Vanguard, we were clearly hearing the volley of bullets.
In a letter to his mother(to be delivered after the coup),one of the coupists who eventually escaped, Captain Tolofari, stated inter alia:
“Inyingi, if you are reading this letter, it means that I’m dead, or that l have been arrested (in which case, l will still be shot to death), or that l have escaped (in which case, l will contact you as soon as it becomes possible)…please, do not weep for me…”
May we never witness anything like coup again.
*See Exploitation and Instability in Nigeria:The Orkar Coup in Perspective (2004): Book by Captain S. Tolofari.